Hurricane Irma, which could become the costliest storm in U.S. history, is threatening $1.2 billion worth of agricultural production in Florida, the No. 2 produce grower in the country and “the top … grower of fresh tomatoes, oranges, green beans, cucumbers, squash, and sugarcane,” says AgWeb.
The storm threat has already pushed orange juice futures and domestic sugar prices higher. “Orange juice futures in New York are trading near their highest level since May, while the benchmark contract for U.S. sugar rose on Wednesday to the highest since July,” according to AgWeb. “If Irma tracks further north and moves inland through Georgia or the Carolinas, corn, soybeans, cotton and peanut harvests in that region could be damaged.”
Irma could adversely affect food prices, which have been trending lower, and farmer finances, which are already suffering, in the months and years to come.
In the storm’s aftermath, farmers may have few options for covering their losses, given that protection under the federal crop insurance system varies widely from crop to crop. “About 300,000 of Florida’s 367,500 acres of oranges are insured this year, according to government data,” says AgWeb. “But only about half of the state’s fresh-market tomatoes are covered, and policies tailored to strawberries simply don’t exist outside of California.”
John-Walt Boatright, a spokesman for the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, told AgWeb that smaller crops simply don’t have the acreage to support policies, and hurricanes, though devastating, are relatively rare and unpredictable. “Insurers don’t know what to expect, and it’s hard for them to charge a premium it makes sense for a farmer to pay,” he said.