Tampa Bay area's agriculture industry suffers 'catastrophic' damage from recent hurricanes

Helping Florida farmers, ranchers after hurricanes

FOX 13's Aaron Mesmer reports.

DOVER, Fla. - The Tampa Bay area's agriculture industry is recovering after suffering "catastrophic" damage from back-to-back hurricanes, state and local leaders said Thursday.

During a news conference from the Florida Strawberry Growers Association in Dover, Wilton Simpson, Florida's Agriculture Commissioner, joined Sen. Rick Scott to put the damage caused by Hurricane Milton to local farms into context.

"It's catastrophic in this area, and I would say it compares with this storm probably very similarly to our Big Bend area in the state being [which was] hit three times in the last 13 months," he said.

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According to Simpson, Hurricane Milton likely caused up to $2.5 billion in damage to the state's agriculture industry, which is more than three times the cost of damage created by the three previous storms that hit Florida's Big Bend area combined.

"Our citrus industry has been hit hard again," Simpson said. "Many fruit that was on the trees is probably on the ground today. Flooding, when you look at the strawberry industry right here where we are today, you've seen the flooding and the destruction to the property here."

Some of the region's farms were devastated by flooding and wind during Milton.

At Hinton Farms in Dover, workers have been re-planting strawberry plants and replacing the plastic coverings that were damaged during the storm.

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"The plants that were left, we went ahead and removed them, and we're going to salvage the plants that we can," said Jack Raburn, who works at Hinton Farms. "Farmers are really resilient, and we're used to taking challenges and running with those and being ready to meet those challenges."

The faster the recovery the better for the local economy, Raburn said. According to a University of Florida study, strawberry farming has a $1.1 billion annual economic impact on Hillsborough County.

Sen. Scott urged the federal government to make block grants available to Florida farmers, which, according to the senator, would help speed up the rebuilding process.

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