Florida freeze destroys crops
From the “Leader-Post” Regina, Saskatchawan,
Canada, December 29, 1983
(Please keep in mind temperature readings are in
Celsius.)
MIAMI-Reuters – Vegetable and soft fruit crops in Central Florida
may have suffered as badly as citrus crops in the Christmas freeze,
officials said Wednesday as the temperature rose and damage became more
apparent.
Supermarket prices in both Canada and the United States are expected
to climb as a result.
Nancy Whipple of the Orlando-based Florida Fruit & Vegetable
Association said tomatoes were worst hit but peppers, eggplants,
radishes, squash, carrots, celery and other leaf vegetables also were
badly hurt.
Chip Hinton, president of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association,
said a Christmas night low of 7 degrees below zero in Plant City –
the country’s winter strawberry capital – wiped out about 80
percent of the $150 million crop.
Gov. Bob Graham declared the citrus and sugar cane industries in a
state of emergency, authorizing trucks to carry up to 3,600 kilograms
above their normal loads as they rushed damaged crops to processing
plants.
Orange growers were trying to get damaged fruit pulped for juice
before warmer weather started the dehydration process in oranges frozen
on trees.
About 50 percent of the 1983-84 crop had been harvested before the
freeze struck, but the pre-season production estimate of 1.32 million
tons of raw sugar would almost certainly have to be revised downward,
Whipple said.