By Jacob Burg
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June 07, 2026Updated:June 07, 2026
TERRA CEIA, Fla.—Lifelong citrus farmer Sidney Tillett cut a path through a grove that has endured in his family for four generations, stopping his SUV between two rows of trees. On one side was a long plot of lush green saplings, covered with protective mesh bags tied to stakes in the ground.
Directly on the other side, a row of petite orange trees with withering leaves were all battling a bacterial infection, caused by an invasive insect that has decimated the state’s orange industry in just two decades.
“It’s a story of survival,” Tillett told The Epoch Times, remembering his father’s 25-foot-tall citrus trees that could sometimes produce 1,000 pounds of fruit in a single season.
Now, what trees survive are lucky if their canopies get half that size, or produce any fruit that can be sold at market. What was once 600 acres of citrus trees in the 1970s has now dwindled to five.
The orange—Florida’s inextricable insignia that emblazons license plates, T-shirts, and bumper stickers from affluent coastal towns to rural farming communities—was once the state’s largest cash crop and positioned the Sunshine State as the country’s majority citrus producer.
Florida harvested a record 244 million boxes of oranges during the 1997–1998 season. This year, the Department of Agriculture estimates that Florida will produce only 12.2 million boxes, a stunning 95 percent drop in a little less than 30 years.
Occasional freezes, catastrophic hurricanes, and an on-and-off, decades-long battle with the citrus canker disease proved to be frustrating setbacks for many orange growers, but the destruction of Florida’s citrus industry kicked into high gear in 2005.
That was the year an invasive insect from China—which made its way to the United States through Mexico—introduced a disease that would ultimately decimate Florida’s citrus industry.
The Asian citrus psyllid feeds on citrus tree leaves, causing the plant to contract a bacterial infection known as huanglongbing, commonly called citrus greening.
The disease causes rapid root loss, slowly draining the life from healthy trees as they try to absorb and retain nutrients. Oranges languish, struggling to reach full maturity and normal sugar composition—losing the sweet taste that made the fruit an in-demand crop worldwide.
There is no known cure. And the effects extend far beyond the Sunshine State.
Citrus greening has slashed total U.S. orange production by 80 percent and grapefruit production by 88 percent since 2000, according to a report from the American Farm Bureau Federation. California has now overtaken Florida to become the United States’ largest citrus producer, and nations such as Egypt and South Africa now export more oranges worldwide.
But Florida citrus farmers are not giving up.
Recent studies by the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center have offered several paths for the industry to take.
Insecticides are a major component of citrus greening management, the center stated in an August 2025 production guide, but a specialized protective netting known as exclusion mesh “is currently the only tool that can fully prevent [Asian citrus psyllid] infestation in citrus.”
Farmers have covered young saplings with translucent mesh bags that tent the tree’s canopy to keep the Asian citrus psyllid out long enough for the tree to take hold and mature.
Meanwhile, light and moisture can pass through the cover’s fine mesh.
While effective at stopping immediate tree death—as many saplings are infected within the first six months—the bags have some limitations.
They allow citrus trees to produce quality fruit for at least 30 months after they’re planted, but the trees eventually begin to falter after the bags are removed two to three years later.
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