By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins met with agriculture leaders in Florida Monday and announced that her agency has signed a $675 million block grant agreement with the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to provide recovery assistance for Florida farmers following the last two hurricane seasons.
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“I want to thank the U.S. Department of Agriculture for recognizing the need for critical financial relief for our farmers, ranchers and growers,” Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said in a written statement. “Florida producers have endured back-to-back devastating hurricane seasons, and this funding is a major victory that will help them rebuild, recover, and continue feeding our state and nation.”
The funding will be available to producers in counties designated as primary or contiguous disaster areas in 2023 and 2024, to help with infrastructure damage, market loss compensation, and citrus-specific damage, including projected economic losses and timber losses.
Simpson said Florida producers suffered more than $3 billion in losses from Hurricanes Idalia in 2023 and Debby, Helene, and Milton in 2024.
In January, a University of Florida report estimated that agriculture production losses from the 2024 hurricane season amounted to nearly $976 million. That report noted that more than 6 million acres of agricultural lands that annually produce more than $8 billion of farm products were damaged by Hurricane Helene last September.
It said that Hurricane Milton in October 2024 damaged more than 5.7 million acres of agricultural lands that annually produce more than $8.6 billion in agricultural products.
Florida has previously provided approximately $150 million through the Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural and Aquaculture Producers Natural Disaster Recovery Loan Program and timber recovery program to support producers with emergency capital as they recover and rebuild from recent storms.
