(7) Pinellas, (8) Charlotte, (9) Sarasota, and (10) Monroe. The following 

 section is a detailed discussion of Southwest Florida's five major farm prod- 

 ucts. A synopsis of their production is given in Table 13. 



Table 13. Southwest Florida's five major agricultural products (excluding 

 forest products) and the major producing counties in 1978 (U.S. Department of 

 Commerce, Bureau of the Census 1978; Florida Crop and Livestock Reporting 

 Service 1978). 



Commodity 



Oranges 

 Tomatoes 

 Milk 

 Beef 



Eggs 



Other 

 Total 



Oranges 



west Florida accounted for 

 State's grapefruit crop, and 



Oranges are Southwest Florida's major cash farm product. In 1978, South- 



19.4% of the State's orange crop, 6.6% of the 

 16.0% of the State's total citrus crop. Orange 

 production was 23.9 million boxes in 1969 and 31.9 million boxes in 1979. (A 

 box is roughly equivalent to 56 liters or 1-3/5 bushels.) Orange production 

 in the last decade increased 33.4% in Southwest Florida and 26.4% in the 

 State. Hillsborough, Pasco, and DeSoto are the major producing counties. 

 Despite increased orange production, the acreage of orange groves has 

 decl ined. 



Only about 10% of the oranges are marketed fresh either in or out of the 

 State. The remainder is processed into frozen concentrate in Hillsborough, 

 Manatee, and Pasco Counties. The concentrate is transported by rail to Tampa 

 and shipped to interstate markets, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, and Puerto 

 Rico. Orange production provides a sizable income to Southwest Florida's 

 residents in terms of primary production, processing, and distribution. Cash 

 receipts for oranges in 1978 were $125.9 million or about 27% of the agricul- 

 tural total for Southwest Florida. 



As acreage decreased, orange production has increased primarily because 

 of increased application of fertilizers and better weather forecasting. The 

 yield per acre of oranges was 268 boxes in 1954, 290 boxes in 1978, and 350 

 boxes in 1980. 



108 



