Florida’s citrus industry has ended the 2024-2025 growing season with its lowest production in over a century, mainly due to hurricanes and citrus greening disease, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Orange production dropped by 32.7%, grapefruit by 27.4%, and tangerines and tangelos by 11%, resulting in a total of 14.52 million boxes of citrus, including lemons. This is the lowest total since the 1919-1920 season. Specifically, growers produced 12.15 million boxes of oranges, 1.3 million boxes of grapefruit, 400,000 boxes of tangerines and tangelos, and 670,000 boxes of lemons. Overall, production was 28.5% lower than the previous season and down 75% from five years ago.
In response to these challenges, the Florida Legislature approved a $124.5 million aid package for the industry in the 2025-2026 budget, which includes $100 million for new disease-resistant trees, grove management, and rehabilitation of existing trees.
Load-to-Truck Ratio
Last week, reefer load post volumes saw a significant drop of nearly 20%, largely due to a 3% decrease in domestic produce shipments. This continues the year-to-date trend of summer produce volumes remaining 7% lower, which is negatively impacting truckload volumes in the reefer spot market. Concurrently, carrier equipment posts fell by 4% week-over-week, leading to a reduction in the reefer load-to-truck ratio to 9.57.
Spot rates
National reefer rates, after holding steady through the latter half of July, saw a one-cent decline last week, settling at just over $1.95 per mile. This rate is $0.02 lower than the previous year but $0.01 higher than in 2023.
