| Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Dan Glickman to declare 18 of the state's counties, including Palm Beach
and Martin, agricultural disaster areas after a series of freezes in late
December and early January.
In addition to the 18 counties Bush named, a disaster declaration would
cover 17 other contiguous counties, including St. Lucie. Preliminary
damage estimates released Friday by the Florida Department of Agriculture
showed the state's vegetable, fern and tropical fish industries suffered
more than $179 million in losses.
Florida's sugar cane and citrus crops also had significant losses, but
those dollar amounts are not known yet. Much depends on the weather and on
how much can be harvested in the next few weeks, sugar industry officials
said.
"It's a waiting game," said Barbara Miedema, a spokeswoman
for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade, one of
the state's three major sugar growers.
Although the value of the loss has not yet been determined, Palm Beach
County reported the largest number of acres damaged. The state said 89,719
acres of sugar cane and 890 acres of sweet corn -- a total of 90,609 acres
-- were affected by the freeze.
The preliminary numbers for corn damage were far below what Glades area
growers said after the first freeze over New Year's Eve weekend. They
estimated the cold temperatures had damaged 2,000 to 4,000 acres of corn.
Farmers said most of their early plantings were ruined, but said most of
the 26,000 acres of corn grown annually in Palm Beach County had not yet
been planted.
As for sugar production, under normal conditions, an acre yields 4.44
tons of raw sugar, according to the Florida Sugar Cane League. If the
damage on the affected acres is 100 percent, that could translate into
nearly 400,000 tons of sugar.
Total Florida production is about 2 million tons of raw sugar a year,
or about one-fifth of the nation's total.
South Florida's sugar growers continue to evaluate the devastation from
the freezes, which brought temperatures in the 20s to western agricultural
areas in Palm Beach and Martin counties.
"The reports from the field are good and bad. . . . We are still
bringing in frost-damaged cane and milling it," said Judy Sanchez,
spokeswoman for Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp.
Bush is requesting emergency loans and other assistance from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. A disaster declaration entitles qualified
farmers for low-interest loans, but provides no outright aid, said USDA
spokeswoman Mary Beth Schultheis.
Generally, the USDA moves quickly on disaster requests, but Schultheis
said she could not say when Glickman might act.
The largest dollar loss was reported in Volusia County, home to Daytona
Beach, with $38.6 million in freeze damage, almost all of it to the fern
industry.
Miami-Dade's agriculture-related flood damage amounted to $13 million,
primarily to potatoes. Freeze damage was estimated at $24.9 million, with
malanga, a tropical fruit, and snap beans hurt most. The estimate included
400 acres of sugar cane, with 50 percent of its yield affected. The cane
damage could result in a $2.64 million loss, the state agriculture
department said. |