PLAQUEMINES PARISH, La. — Satsuma season is underway. But this year, Plaquemines Parish's sweet specialty will be harder to find.
Two years ago, Hurricane Zeta knocked the fruit clean off many growers' trees. Then, just a year later, Hurricane Ida brought even stronger winds along with devastating storm surge.
"The trees literally got beat to death," Ben Becnel Jr., an owner of Alliance farm Ben & Ben Becnel said. "I lost half my grove last year."
According to the LSU AgCenter, about 1,500 citrus trees were destroyed during Ida, making up about 70% of the year's crop. Plaquemines Parish suffered about $9.5 million in total horticulture losses.
Compounding the problem, most of the surviving trees are producing less fruit thanks to damage from the two storms. Becnel estimates most of his trees are yielding about 40% as many satsumas as usual.
Even though the floodwater is long gone, Ida's impact is permanent. Becnel, like other growers, has decided certain plots of land are just too vulnerable to plant slow-growing crops like fruit trees. Ida pushed about two feet of storm surge onto the farm's main property. A few miles downriver, another property was swamped with about eight feet. That's where the bulk of Becnel's citrus trees were destroyed. Once all of the dead trees are torn up, he does not plan to plant more. "We learned that this is higher property through the floods," he said at the main hub, "so we’re gonna invest in this property."
And the two storms were the latest misfortunes for Plaquemines Parish citrus growers.
"It's been a tough road ever since Katrina," explained Becnel.
The 2005 storm did considerable damage. Then, two new plant diseases appeared, which wreak havoc on Plaquemines Parish citrus to this day. Citrus greening, one of the world's most devastating citrus diseases, was reported in Louisiana for the first time in 2008. Citrus canker showed up in 2013 after disappearing from Louisiana in the 1940s.
The hardships have pushed many growers out of the business. Becnel says he has seen dozens of smaller operations shut down just in the last couple of decades.
His own will move forward with long-term, if not permanent, wounds. The farm planted about 1,200 new citrus trees after Ida. That's not enough to replace all that were destroyed. Becnel does not have any immediate plans to plant more.
Despite the hardships, there are signs of recovery in Plaquemines Parish orchards. Almost all of the citrus trees destroyed during Ida have been torn up. And row upon row of new citrus trees promise a greater harvest in years to come.
And the best news of all-- even though there will not be as many satsumas on the shelves this year, Becnel promises they are just as sweet and juicy as ever.
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