Alico, Inc., a major Fort Myers-based citrus grower, took about a $23 million hit from Hurricane Ian and will see lower revenue in 2023 because of the storm, the company said Tuesday in an earnings report.
John Kiernan, president and chief executive officer, said the Category 4 hurricane, which made landfall Sept. 28 in Southwest Florida and crossed the state, caused “substantial fruit drop at the majority of our groves,” but tree damage was largely limited to one property.
The company uses a Sept. 30 end of its fiscal year, and it said the storm affected the financial results through about $23 million of “one-time items for casualty losses and inventory adjustments.” Kiernan also said Alico will see lower revenue in the 2023 fiscal year because it will have less fruit to sell.
“Based upon our prior experience with storms of this nature, we anticipate it may take up to two seasons or more for our groves to recover to pre-hurricane production levels,” Kiernan said in a prepared statement.
“After Hurricane Irma struck in 2017, our groves recovered the following harvest season. We maintain crop insurance and are working closely with our insurers and adjusters to evaluate and determine the amount of insurance recovery we may be entitled to, if any.”
The powerful hurricane came as Florida’s citrus industry already had seen the lowest production levels in decades, in part because of deadly citrus greening disease and development pressure.
But Tuesday’s report indicated that Alico had fared better than many other growers. “Alico remains focused on carrying on its business for the long term,” Kiernan said. “In fact, we believe that we are the only citrus grower in the state of Florida that closed on a small acquisition for additional citrus acres immediately after Hurricane Ian in October.
Alico has planted approximately 1.9 million new trees since 2017, which has materially increased tree density in our existing and recently purchased groves.” The company reported net income of $12.5 million for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from about $34.9 million the previous year.
Prior to Hurricane Ian making landfall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a commitment to help farmers, particularly citrus growers.
“The health of Florida’s iconic citrus industry is vital to our state’s economy,” said Governor DeSantis. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to step up to the plate and get funding to our citrus growers who are still recovering from Hurricane Irma. I look forward to continuing to work with the citrus industry and our federal partners to ensure we continue to expedite the release of these funds.”
In April 2020, DeSantis announced the Re-Open Florida Task Force, a group he put together to help the agriculture industry recover from the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to this News Service of Florida story.
