As the Florida House and Senate prepare to negotiate a new state budget, among the big issues they will face is a push by Senate President Ben Albritton, a citrus grower, to help the state’s struggling citrus industry.
The Senate on Friday released a proposed $117.36 billion budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that includes $200 million directed toward the citrus industry. This would be in addition to the $200 million that the Senate has approved in a bill (SB 110) that Albritton has dubbed the “rural renaissance” to bolster rural communities.
The citrus industry proposal includes $125 million for new tree plantings, an amount that Albritton isn’t sure is enough for an industry facing its lowest seasonal production in a century because of deadly citrus greening disease, damaging hurricanes and encroaching development.
“If and when we get this proposal across the line, again, we have to work with our (House) partners, whatever the number is at the end, maybe $125 million, we'll see,” Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters Thursday. “But we'll know pretty quickly what the appetite (from growers) to participate in this … program will be. As I moved around the industry and talked to friends of mine, there appears to be a pretty solid appetite for it.”
The Senate proposal would far exceed the $47 million in citrus-related money included in the budget for the current fiscal year, which will end June 30. That spending plan included $29 million for technologies to research, treat and prevent citrus greening. Another $9 million went to citrus marketing.
The House on Friday released a $112.95 billion budget proposal for the 2025-2026 year that includes $8 million for citrus research, with $3 million of that money directed to citrus disease, and $3 million for marketing.
In his proposed 2025-2026 budget, Gov. Ron DeSantis included $20 million for citrus research and what is known as the Citrus Health Response Program, with $7 million of the total going to the Department of Citrus.
The House and Senate are expected to approve their budget proposals next week, setting up negotiations on a final version in the final weeks of the legislative session, which is scheduled to end May 2.
When asked Wednesday when the Florida Citrus Commission would have firm numbers from the Legislature to plan its next budget, Department of Citrus Executive Director Shannon Shepp replied, “May 2.”
“It’s going to come down to conference (negotiations between the House and Senate), as it always does for us,” Shepp said.
The Senate proposal would require nearly one-third of the new trees to initially be offered to growers with between 5 and 2,500 acres.
The Senate proposal also calls for field trials that combine grove management, therapeutic tools and disease-resistant varieties of fruit for new plantings and the rehabilitation of existing trees.
“There's a growing need to have large-scale research in Florida, especially with many of the new varieties, new root stocks, new therapies and things that we believe the industry believes can bend the curve,” Albritton told reporters.
The proposal also would direct $10 million to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for a cost-sharing program with citrus packing houses on new equipment, repairs and new technologies.
As the Senate announced the proposal last week, Albritton made clear he will push to revitalize the industry after years of dwindling production.
“Florida citrus is not going down on my watch,” Albritton said in a prepared statement. “This heritage industry is not only vital to our state’s economy, but it is truly a part of the DNA of Florida.”
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