BARTOW, Fla. — Florida orange growers are gearing up for the new season, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its forecast for orange production next year. On Tuesday, the department predicted an overall 11% decrease from last year, in oranges.

What You Need To Know

Still, some growers choose to be optimistic; one Polk County grower claims he’s going to surpass last year’s turnout.

Orange grower Christian Spinosa's fruit is not ripe, yet; it’s still early. Spinosa will likely pick oranges for juice come December or January. He sells to Florida’s Natural.

“We had a very good bloom this spring. More solid, uniform bloom,”  Spinosa said, confidently.

Despite his upbeat outlook, the grove faces signs of challenges. The citrus greening disease, also known as HLB, has taken a toll. It attacks and “suffocates” trees. For Spinosa, it’s meant planting many new trees for a total reset at the grove.

Florida Department of Citrus’ Shannon Shepp says there’s no real solution, but growers have learned to deal with it, live with it: “This being a devastating impact to the growers, having a problem without a solution is the biggest issue that they’ve faced,” Shepp said.

At the same time, demand for orange juice keeps increasing. Shepp said COVID-19 caused people to be more health-conscious with their juice choices in this way.

So Spinosa is trying to keep as many trees he can. A rise in sales, and some higher fruit prices, help him carry on.

“It’s economics at that point. We’ve still got to be able to make money selling fruit,” he said.

The University of Florida says the greening disease has caused citrus growing to plunge by 80% over 15 years.

That’s 234 million 90-pound boxes of oranges. The university’s agriculture experts also say farm prices have been rising since 2005, up 75% since then.