<p>Florida’s citrus crop forecast is down 9 percent from last year as the impact of HLB, or citrus greening disease, is assessed.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced its final forecast for the 2012-2013 Florida orange crop to 133.4 million boxes. Valencias were cut by 700,000 boxes to 66.3 million boxes, while early-mid varieties climbed 100,000 boxes to 67.1 million boxes.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We had severe fruit drop, and a lot of citrus from stressed trees with HLB ended up on the ground," said Michael W. Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual in a news release."If anything, this season provides stark evidence that growers, scientists and the state and federal governments need to work together to beat this disease and save the $9 billion Florida citrus industry and the 76,000 jobs it supports."</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Citrus greening is found in all of Florida's 32 commercial citrus-producing counties, which have 550,000 acres of groves and is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, often kills trees within a couple of years, according to the South Florida Business Journal. The psyllid was first found in South Florida in 1998 before spreading, according to the University of Florida.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2013/07/citrus-industry-were-fighting-for.html " target="_new">South Florida Business Journal </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
