(Bloomberg) — Alico Inc., one of the biggest US orange growers and a supplier to Tropicana, will wind down its citrus division after disease and hurricanes have driven a decades-long decline in production.
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The Florida-based company won’t invest further in its citrus operations after the current crop is harvested in 2025, and instead will transform into a diversified land company, Alico said in a Monday statement.
Shares of Alico were up as much as 14% in early trading.
The shift comes as Florida’s citrus industry has struggled for decades from a devastating disease called greening, while hurricanes have brought continual damage to orange groves. Alico said its citrus production has declined more than 70% over the past 10 years.
“The impact of Hurricanes Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024 on our trees, already weakened from years of citrus greening disease, has led Alico to conclude that growing citrus is no longer economically viable for us in Florida,” Chief Executive Officer John Kiernan said in a statement.
The company, which owns more than 50,000 acres of land in Florida, said it expects to shift to diversified farming operations on “nearly all” its land.
The company will be reducing most of its citrus production workforce immediately, and about 3,460 citrus acres will be managed by third parties for another season through 2026.
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