WAUCHULA, Fla. — Roy Petteway is a glass half full kind of guy.
“If you’re not optimistic, you’re not in the business anymore,” he said bluntly.
And his glass is half full with fresh Florida orange juice.
You may not know Petteway, but you’ve probably enjoyed his work. He’s one of the Florida citrus growers who delivers fresh orange juice to tables around the world daily. He helps run Petteway Citrus & Cattle, his family’s sprawling farm in Hardee County.
“We do close to 300 acres that we own, and then we manage another 600 acres for our customers and such,” he said. “Most of our stuff goes to Tropicana.”
However, just like his oranges, his optimism is currently being squeezed.
“You can’t cry anymore,” he said. “You tear up right now just thinking about it.”
When a weakening Hurricane Milton carved its way slowly across Central Florida last week, it ripped about 30-to-40% of the oranges from his trees.
“Having a 30-40% loss of your crop hurts, and it hurts your bottom line at the end of the day,” he said. “Citrus has been on its last ropes for the past few years, and a storm like this will be a death knell for many citrus growers.”
It’s a frustrating setback in a citrus season that was shaping up to be decent after years of recent frustrations. Hurricane Ian severely damaged groves in Sept. 2022. Florida’s citrus production has also been ravaged for years by an insect-spread disease, citrus greening.
Now, citrus growers are faced with yet another hardship thanks to Milton.
“We keep taking it on the chin, and we need a little bit of help. We need people to keep drinking orange juice. Keep supporting local farmers and such,” Petteway said.
Petteway also thinks citrus growers will need Washington’s help. He believes a recovery block grant program, similar to what was offered to growers after Hurricane Irma, would be most helpful.
“We don’t want to be farmin’ the mailbox, but we really do need some government assistance,” he said plainly.
Matt Joyner, the head of Florida Citrus Mutual, agrees.
“We’re absolutely in need of help from our federal partners,” he said.
However, help is not guaranteed during a time when Washington is so divided. According to Joyner, the U.S. Congress failed to deliver much help after Hurricane Ian.
“And as a result, we have seen over a hundred thousand acres exit this industry,” he said. “Growers just could not hang on waiting for some of the assistance that had been promised.”
Back at his orange groves in Hardee County, Petteway continues to survey the damage and make necessary repairs.
His nursery, where future orange trees are being carefully grown to withstand disease, will need a plastic new roof.
As for this season’s crop, despite the loss of fruit from many of his trees during Milton, Petteway is hoping the green orbs that remain on branches will continue growing healthily and ripening to their namesake color until harvest during winter months.
“Hey, the trees looked beautiful a week ago,” he said. “Now, they just like they had the hell beat out of ‘em.”
Despite the destruction, he’s still optimistic his industry will somehow survive.
He’s a third generation citrus grower, and if all goes as planned, there will be a fourth.
“My daughter’s two years old, and my son’s one,” he said with a smile. “She already drives by the orange trees, and she says, ‘Oranges! Oranges! Juice! OJ! OJ!’”
For now, Petteway’s orange juice glass remains half full.
“Every single person in the world enjoys a nice glass of orange juice in the morning, and we want to continue that. We don’t do this for the money. We do this for the passion and desire we have to share this product that we create with everyone out there in the world,” he said.
