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UF Study Finds Agriculture Land Values Drop | 04-12-2010
Probably few Florida agriculture people were surprised by a recent University of Florida survey showing their property values declined in 2009, but the depth of the drop in citrus groves may have surprised some.
The value of a mature grapefruit grove declined 30.7 percent from $10,640 per acre in May 2008 to $7,369 last year, according to the latest annual survey by Rodney Clouser, a professor and economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The decline for an acre of young citrus trees, ages 5 to 7 years, declined nearly as much, 28.7 percent, from $10,461 to $7,459. Citrus trees generally don't produce a commercial crop until age 5.
An acre of mature oranges did well by comparison, losing only 10.5 percent value from $13,500 in May 2008 to $12,086 last year.
The survey for 2009 marked the third consecutive year for a decline in citrus grove values.
"It is apparent from the survey responses in 2009 that the recessionary U.S. and Florida economies, the slower rate of Florida's population growth and the decline in the Florida housing construction industry continue to be reflected in a further decline in most Florida farmland values," according to the report done by Clouser with Ron Muraro and Robert "Allen" Morris, economists at the Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.
"Other factors such as rising energy related costs, additional costs for disease control for some commodities and commodity prices that were stable or declining also help explain the decline in the 2009 farmland values," the report adds.
Read the full original article from The Ledger.