Citrus History 1895 to 1979

After a decade of freezes between 1894 to 1906, the industry began to expand and grow. Following the 1906 freeze California had taken over as the leading orange state, but in 1942 Florida surpassed California, and according to McPhee grows “three times as many oranges now.”

This was in part because of the increased travel and migration to Florida that occurred in the 1920s. 1922 to 28 is considered Florida’s land boom, which saw increased tourism and expansion across the state. During this time Orange growers also increased their amount of acreage to occupy 522,000, this is nearly four times the amount of acres that Florida had in 1895. The biggest problem with the land boom was that the new settlers were buying and developing land in the northern part of the state that would be best suited for citrus. Due to the rise in the lands value, and also taxes, “counties such as Orange and Pinellas began to lose many acres of citrus to the urbanites.” Although the best land was being taken by incomers, the citrus growers were still able to expand across the state, especially in the south.

The most severe freeze to hit Florida between 1906 and the 1970s was in 1962. According to Ziegler and Wolfe, during the 1962 freeze the state of Florida lost nearly 8 million oranges as a result. Although a significant amount of the citrus crop was lost that year, it would benefit the growers because the price of fresh citrus and concentrate increased. By the 1970s, Florida’s citrus industry would reach its peak.

The 1970s are considered the best decade for the Florida citrus industry. In 1975, According to Ziegler and Wolfe, Florida was the world’s leader in grapefruit production. Not only this, but Florida was also the leader in oranges. Due to the development by three central Florida scientist who developed the ability to commercialize and sell orange-juice concentrate, Florida experienced a huge increase in its output of citrus overall. 

Groves continued to expand.In the early 1970s, there were approximately 877,000 acres of citrus groves in the state of Florida. In under a century, the industry had expanded to nearly 8 times its original size. For the last 60 years, Florida has not experienced any severe tree-killing freezes, so the perception on freezes changed drastically in the 70s.

According to Ziegler and Wolfe, growers started to perceive freezes as “fortunate disasters” since the citrus production rate would decrease resulting in the price of the crop to triple. Going into the 1980s Florida citrus growers were not afraid of freezes and it was the leading citrus producer in the United States.

At the end of the 1970s, the United States of America was the leading citrus provider for the World. The 1980s marks the downturn of the entire industry, most directly because of the series of freezes that would come.