Citrus Commission Pumps $184K into Marketing After Treasure Coast Freezes

The Florida Citrus Commission voted Wednesday to inject $184,000 into domestic fresh fruit marketing, doubling down on a strategy to move more oranges and grapefruit off packing lines and onto grocery shelves as the industry reels from January's destructive winter storms.

The new funding brings total state spending on fresh citrus promotion to $535,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30. The additional dollars are expected to expand advertising at airports and Major League Baseball spring training stadiums and fund digital ads and partnerships with grapefruit influencers, according to officials.

The Bartow-based commission's move comes as growers and packers push to expand fresh citrus distribution in domestic markets while pulling back from participation in a U.S. Department of Agriculture overseas export program. Shifting more fruit to fresh markets rather than processing plants offers a financial advantage for growers, Florida Citrus Mutual CEO Matt Joyner told the News Service of Florida. "There's a value add where we can move more of our fruit into the fresh market and not send quite as much to the processing plants," Joyner said.

The already-struggling industry absorbed an estimated $675 million in losses to fruit and trees from the January freezes, according to officials. Those storms were part of a broader agricultural catastrophe that cost Florida agriculture an estimated $3.17 billion overall, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services reported. Sugarcane farmers reported $1.15 billion in losses, strawberry growers sustained $306 million in damages, sweet corn growers saw $245 million in losses, and greenhouses and nurseries suffered around $240 million in losses.

The freeze compounded an already bleak production outlook. The USDA forecasts Florida will produce 12 million boxes of oranges this season, down from 12.2 million in 2024-25, and 1.2 million boxes of grapefruit, down from 1.3 million. The commission is preparing its next fiscal year budget based on per-box tax collections tied to projections of 10 million orange boxes and 1.1 million grapefruit boxes.

The Legislature ended its regular session last week without passing a state budget, leaving citrus funding proposals — including a Senate package of more than $225 million for research, recovery programs, advertising and nursery infrastructure — unresolved. Lawmakers are expected to return in mid-April to finish budget work, at which point citrus industry funding will be among the top items on the agenda.

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