Florida Agriculture Overview — Florida

Florida agriculture operates across a peninsula that spans temperate, subtropical, and tropical climate zones, giving the state the capacity to supply fresh produce to national markets during months when northern states are frost-bound. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, Florida counted 44,703 farms covering 9.7 million acres and generating $10.2 billion in total agricultural product sales — up from $7.4 billion in 2017. The state ranks second in the nation in vegetable production and has historically been the dominant domestic orange producer, a position significantly eroded since 2005 by Huanglongbing disease and successive hurricane seasons.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) administers the sector at the state level, led by a separately elected Commissioner of Agriculture. The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) provides the primary public research and extension infrastructure statewide. According to the 2024 Florida Agricultural Export Report, Florida exported agricultural and related products to 161 countries and territories in 2023, generating $10.0 billion in total economic impact from those exports.

The 2022 Census of Agriculture reveals a production structure defined by high concentration. The 1,615 farms with sales of $1 million or more represented just 3.6% of all Florida farms but accounted for 82.0% of total agricultural product sales and operated 37.8% of Florida farmland. At the other end of the distribution, 36,478 farms — 81.6% of all farms — reported sales under $50,000 and together contributed only 2.3% of total sales.

Average farm size stood at 217 acres in 2022, up 6.4% from 2017, reflecting continued consolidation. Family-owned and operated farms accounted for 76.4% of all Florida farms, consistent with national patterns of family ownership alongside concentrated production. Total farm count fell by 2,887 between 2017 and 2022, from 47,590 to 44,703, a decline USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) documented in its 2022 state-level report. The UF/IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department's 2025 Fast Facts publication places these figures in the context of agriculture's broader role in the state's food system.

Florida's commodity mix is distinguished by subtropical specialty crops that are largely unavailable from other domestic sources during winter months. The USDA NASS Annual Statistical Bulletin identified oranges (13.5% of cash receipts), cattle and calves (7.6%), dairy products (7.0%), sugarcane for sugar and seed (8.0%), and tomatoes for fresh market (3.4%) among the leading commodities by cash receipt share in 2019.

Sugarcane is Florida's most valuable field crop and is harvested between late October and mid-April. The Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service reports that 80% of Florida sugarcane grows on high-organic-matter muck soils and 20% on sand soils. Winter vegetables — tomatoes, peppers, snap beans, squash, and cucumbers — supply national markets from Palm Beach, Collier, Hillsborough, and Manatee counties. Strawberry production is centered in the Plant City area of Hillsborough County and on the central ridge.

Florida's ornamental horticulture sector — nursery stock, ornamental plants, and sod — is documented by UF/IFAS as one of the largest in the nation. The state's aquaculture sector encompasses ornamental fish, food fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants; ornamental fish production represents the largest segment by production value, concentrated in Hillsborough, Polk, and Marion counties. According to the 2024 FDACS Export Report, the top 10 exported commodities accounted for 58.1% of all Florida agricultural and related product exports in 2023.

Florida's agricultural production is segmented by commodity across distinct geographic zones shaped by soils, climate, and water management infrastructure. The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), formed through the partial drainage of the historic Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee in the early twentieth century, anchors the state's sugarcane industry. The Everglades Foundation documents approximately 400,000 acres planted in sugarcane annually in the EAA, primarily in Palm Beach and Hendry counties, with additional acreage in Glades and Martin counties.

Citrus groves historically dominated the Central Florida ridge counties — Polk, Highlands, Hardee, DeSoto, and Indian River — though Huanglongbing (HLB) disease has caused dramatic contraction in grove acreage since 2005. The Panhandle and north Florida counties, including Alachua, Marion, and Suwannee, support cattle ranching, timber, and field crops such as peanuts and cotton. These northern counties benefit from a more temperate climate suited to row-crop agriculture and livestock grazing, contrasting with the subtropical specialty-crop systems of the peninsula's southern half.

Winter vegetables concentrate in South Florida lowland counties — Palm Beach and Collier — as well as in the Gulf Coast counties of Hillsborough and Manatee, where proximity to major distribution infrastructure supports rapid shipment to northern markets. Aquaculture operations, particularly ornamental fish, are clustered in Hillsborough, Polk, and Marion counties, reflecting suitable water resources and proximity to the ornamental fish trade.

The contraction of Florida's citrus industry stands as the most structurally significant change in the state's agricultural history over the past two decades. The Florida Senate Committee on Agriculture's 2025 analysis of Senate Bill 178 documented the trajectory: Florida produced 170 million boxes of oranges in the 2007-2008 season, fell to 28 million boxes in 2022-2023, and the USDA NASS May 2025 forecast for the 2024-2025 season stood at 11.6 million boxes — a decline of approximately 93% from the 2007-2008 peak.

The Senate Committee analysis described Huanglongbing (HLB), caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus and spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, as 'one of the most serious citrus diseases in the world.' The disease causes continuous grove loss, reduced yields per tree, and the withdrawal of acreage from active production. The USDA Economic Research Service's March 2025 Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook projected the 2024-25 Florida orange crop at 522,000 tons — down 35% from the prior season — and described it as potentially the smallest Florida orange crop in 95 years, attributing the decline jointly to Hurricane Milton's October 2024 impact and the persistent HLB epidemic. UF/IFAS maintains active research programs addressing HLB treatment and grove recovery, representing a sustained institutional response to the industry's structural challenge.

The 2024-2025 agricultural year was shaped by compounding hurricane damage and the continuing citrus decline. Hurricane Milton made landfall in October 2024, striking core citrus and vegetable-producing regions. FDACS Commissioner Wilton Simpson estimated Milton caused between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion in agricultural crop and infrastructure losses, as reported by WUSF in October 2024. Accounting for the prior storms of the same period, the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center Suwannee Valley reported that Hurricanes Idalia, Debby, Helene, and Milton together caused between $676 million and $1.25 billion in lost agricultural production, with additional on-farm infrastructure losses recorded separately.

In response, the American Relief Act of 2025 included disaster assistance provisions for agricultural producers. The USDA Farm Service Agency announced in July 2025 that $675.9 million would be directed to FDACS to administer a program covering infrastructure, citrus, and timber losses, as part of a $30 billion national disaster assistance effort under the act. Federal assistance programs available to Florida producers included the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP), the Spot Delivery Revenue Program (SDRP), and the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP), as documented by UF/IFAS.

Florida agriculture intersects with several of the state's most consequential policy domains. The EAA sugarcane industry operates on land historically part of the greater Everglades system, and phosphorus discharge and water quality management from EAA farming are central issues in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a federal-state partnership administered in part through the South Florida Water Management District. Tensions between agricultural water use, sugar production, and Everglades restoration represent a persistent thread in Florida environmental and agricultural policy.

The citrus industry's decline carries direct consequences for rural economic development in Central Florida ridge counties — Polk, Highlands, Hardee, and DeSoto — where citrus has historically been a primary employer and land-use anchor. Grove abandonment introduces land-use conversion pressures and fiscal impacts on county tax bases. Hurricane vulnerability links agricultural losses to FDACS emergency coordination, FEMA disaster declarations, and USDA Farm Service Agency assistance programs, as documented in the 2024-2025 storm season response. Florida's farm labor sector — concentrated in vegetable and citrus harvesting — connects the agricultural system to immigration enforcement and labor policy at the federal level. The ornamental horticulture industry, one of Florida's largest agricultural sectors by value, intersects with the state's landscaping and tourism economy, while aquaculture operations connect to both the commercial seafood supply chain and water quality management across inland Florida watersheds.