Florida

E

Manufacturing

Florida’s manufacturing and processing industries have expanded rapidly since the 1950s. In 2002 manufacturing employed 7.3 percent of the workers in the state. The major manufacturing centers are metropolitan Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami. There are also many factories in smaller communities. The principal industry in terms of income generated is the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment. Other leading industries include the manufacture of processed foods, instruments, printed materials, transportation equipment, chemicals, and industrial machinery.

The development during the 1950s of the Cape Canaveral area as a missile testing and launching center spurred the growth of many electronics and other engineering plants in eastern Florida. Also manufactured are radios and televisions, telephones, laser equipment, and semiconductors.

Foodstuffs made in Florida include dairy products, meat products, seafood, and a wide variety of other products. Frozen juice concentrate accounts for a large percentage of the citrus crop. The waste peel and pulp are made into cattle feed. Other citrus by-products include citrus peel oils, wines, marmalades, and jellies. Polk County, east of Tampa, is one of the principal citrus-processing centers in Florida. Vegetables and noncitrus fruit are also processed in small towns throughout the state.

Instruments for search and navigation purposes are products in Florida’s manufacturing sector. The printing industry centers on companies publishing newspapers and periodicals, although commercial printing for businesses has grown. Firms building and repairing ships and boats are the leading employers in the transportation equipment sector, joined by the manufactures of aircraft and aircraft parts, guided missiles and space vehicles, and bodies for trucks and buses.

---

---

Florida’s chemical manufactures include numerous phosphate compounds. In addition, by-products of the wood pulp and paper industry are used in the output of oils, rosins, fatty acids, plastics, and other chemicals.

Industrial machinery makers in Florida include firms making computers and machines used to package other products. Manufactures of fabricated metals are diverse, making things such as structural metal components, metal cans used in fruit and vegetable processing, and sheet metals.

Florida’s forests are a source of wood used in the manufacture of wood pulp, paper, and paperboard. Naval stores, including turpentine, lumber for construction, and many wood products are also produced.

Cigar making is one of the state’s oldest and best known industries. Ybor City, a section of Tampa, has been the principal cigar-making center since the 1880s. Cigars and other tobacco products are also manufactured in Jacksonville. However, many cigar plants were closed during the early 1960s, as a result of the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods, which cut off supplies of Cuban tobacco.

F

Electricity

Thermal generating stations produce 84 percent of the electric power in Florida. These power plants are fueled by coal, petroleum, or natural gas piped in from as far away as Texas. In 1972 and 1973, two nuclear power plants began operating at Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay near Miami. Three other nuclear plants, two on Hutchinson Island near Fort Pierce and the other at Crystal River on the Gulf Coast, began supplying power in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The nuclear plants combined produce 13 percent of the electricity generated in the state.

Most of the state’s electric power is generated and distributed by four major private utility companies. In addition, a number of cities provide their own utility services, and there are cooperative power companies in the rural areas of the state.

G

Tourist Industry

Tourism is a vital component of Florida’s economy. With its warm temperatures, numerous beaches, and many attractions, the state draws millions of people each year. Money from tourism is the largest single source of income for Floridians. Tourists spent $54.5 billion when visiting Florida in 2002.

South Florida is among the most popular destinations for tourists, particularly Miami and Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and the West Palm Beach area. Other major resorts include Daytona Beach, Fort Myers, Saint Petersburg, Panama City, Pensacola, and many others. The internationally known theme parks near Orlando, clustered around Walt Disney World, annually attract more than 40 million visitors. Tourism has also indirectly spurred expansion of the state’s construction industry as hotels, motels, and restaurants are built to accommodate tourists.

H

Transportation

The development and expansion of transportation facilities in Florida have played a major role in the state’s economic expansion. There are 192,363 km (119,529 mi) of highways, including 2,367 km (1,471 mi) of interstate highway, in the state. Principal north-south routes are interstates 95 in the east and 75 in the west. Interstate 10 spans the panhandle region. Other major routes are Florida’s Turnpike, formerly known as the Sunshine State Parkway, which connects Interstate 75 north of Orlando with heavily populated South Florida. The southernmost leg of Interstate 75, sometimes known as “Alligator Alley,” crosses the Everglades and connects Naples with Fort Lauderdale. United States Highway 1 extends south from Jacksonville, parallels Interstate 95 all the way to Miami, and then forms the lifeline of the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West by connecting the dozens of islands that form the keys.

Railroads played a central role in the development of Florida beginning in the 1880s. In 2004 the state had 4,571 km (2,840 mi) of railroad track. Some 63 percent of the tonnage of goods hauled by rail and originating in the state are nonmetallic minerals. Amtrak operates three long-distance passenger routes.

In 2007 Florida had 25 airports, some of which were private airfields. The largest is Miami International, one of the busiest in the nation and a primary point of entry into the United States from the Caribbean and Central and South America. Other major airports in the state include Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, Palm Beach International, Tampa International, and Orlando International.

Although steamboats gave way to railroads as the major form of transportation in Florida during the 1880s, the state’s canals, lakes, and rivers are still widely used for pleasure boating and shipping. More than 1,900 km (1,200 mi) of the Intracoastal Waterway, a toll-free federal waterway for coastal vessels and pleasure craft, extend around the coast of Florida except in the southwest between Fort Myers and the Florida Keys.

Two unusual forms of tourist transportation are used in the Everglades. The flat-bottomed airboat, powered by an airplane engine and propeller, can skim across the shallow waters and swamp grasses. The marsh buggy, a truck with large balloon tires, can go across rough ground and the extensive swamplands of the Everglades.

I

Trade

Tampa, on the Gulf coast, is Florida’s chief port by tonnage due to its phosphate exports. Jacksonville is the leader in dollar value as it is a major destination for automobile imports. Miami is the nation’s leading port for cruise ships. Other major ports are Canaveral Harbor and Port Everglades, the deepwater port for Fort Lauderdale.

Overseas trade is of major importance. Florida trades mainly with Latin American countries and also exports citrus fruit to Canada and Europe. Leading exports are phosphate rock, fertilizers, foodstuffs, paper products, machinery, motor vehicles, iron and steel scrap, and wood pulp. Chief imports are petroleum products, chemicals, clays, cement and other building materials, limestone, foodstuffs, motor vehicles, steel mill products, and paper products.

Peter O. Muller reviewed the Economy section of this article.

IV

The People of Florida

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain