III.

Economic Activities

Farming has been important to Florida’s economy ever since the Spanish introduced citrus fruit, sugarcane, and cattle into Florida in the middle of the 18th century. These three industries are still important to the state. Late in the 18th century, the British introduced the plantation system of agriculture to Florida to produce indigo and cotton, but the indigo plant is no longer cultivated and cotton, although still grown, is no longer a significant crop. The state’s vast pine forests have been a source of pitch and tar, called naval stores, as early as the 16th century, and lumbering became important in the 19th century.

In the late 19th century, Florida’s tourist industry began to develop, with the construction of railroads and resort facilities. In the 20th century tourism became the largest single source of income for the state. Manufacturing in Florida developed in the 20th century, and by the beginning of the 21st century it had been greatly diversified and expanded.

The largest contributor to Florida’s economy in 1999 was the services sector, which contributed 77 percent of the state’s gross product. It includes such industries as finance, insurance, real estate, and retail trade. A cornerstone of this commerce is the tourism industry. Much of the service industry is devoted to meeting the needs of tourists; retail outlets cater to tourists for a significant proportion of their sales, and the real estate and finance industries construct developments to entice tourists to stay or at least spend part of the year in Florida.

Florida had a work force of 8,989,000 people in 2006. The largest share of them, 42 percent, were employed in the diverse service sector doing such things as working in restaurants or data processing. Another 22 percent were employed in wholesale or retail trade; 12 percent in federal, state, or local government; 37 percent in finance, insurance, or real estate; 7 percent in manufacturing; 8 percent in construction; 6 percent in transportation or public utilities; and 2 percent in farming (including agricultural services), forestry, or fishing. Just 0.1 percent held jobs in the mining industry. In 2005, 5 percent of Florida’s workers were unionized. The state has a right-to-work law, which prohibits union membership as a condition of employment.

A.

Agriculture

In 2005 there were 42,500 farms in Florida. Just 38 percent of them had annual sales of more than $10,000. Many of the rest were part-time operations for people who held other jobs. Farmland occupied 4 million hectares (10 million acres). Of that land 34 percent was planted in crops, and the rest was mostly pasture. Some 44 percent of the cropland was irrigated.

The sale of crops accounted for 78 percent of Florida’s farm income in 2004. The sale of livestock and livestock products accounted for the remaining 22 percent. The principal crops are oranges and other citrus fruit, greenhouse and nursery products, tomatoes and other vegetables, and sugarcane. Livestock raised in Florida include beef and dairy cattle, chickens for eggs and meat, hogs, and Thoroughbred horses.

A.1.

Patterns of Farming

In the Florida panhandle, where commercial agriculture is not a major activity, livestock, cotton, peanuts, and other crops are raised on a relatively small scale. Farther east and southeast, in the northern part of the peninsula, agriculture is more important. In this area the chief crops are tobacco, peanuts, cotton, and vegetables. Dairy cattle and chickens are also raised. In central Florida, the leading crops are oranges and other citrus fruits. However, this area is also noted for its vegetable farms, ornamental horticulture, cattle ranches, and horse farms. In south central and southern Florida, the principal crops are vegetables and sugarcane. Cattle are also raised.

A.2.

Citrus Fruit

Florida leads all other states in the production of citrus fruits. Each year the state accounts for two-thirds of the total U.S. citrus crop. It ranks first in the nation in the production of oranges and grapefruit. Other kinds of citrus fruits grown include tangerines, tangelos, and limes. The fruits are grown in groves that generally cover less than 8 hectares.

The preferred land for growing citrus fruit is the rolling lake district of the central Florida peninsula, where the numerous bodies of water retain their warmth in cold weather and help reduce frost hazards. The gently sloping terrain causes cold air to sink into hollows below the level of the fruit. Most citrus in Florida is grown without irrigation, but sprinkler systems are used to irrigate the groves during especially dry years. These systems also supply water for spraying the fruit during brief episodes of below-freezing, nighttime temperatures. The water freezes on the citrus fruit and insulates the fruit’s interior.

Hard freezes, which are especially damaging to the citrus crop, have occurred at least once a decade in the last 100 years. Two hard freezes in the 1980s caused farmers north of Lakeland and Orlando to abandon growing citrus fruits in their groves, and the industry has been slowly shifting southward ever since. In the past the shipment to market of low-quality fruit, damaged by freezes, caused disastrous price slumps and often ruined citrus growers. However, strict market control by the Florida Citrus Commission over quantity and quality of fruit sold now helps to keep up prices after severe winters. Also very damaging to the crop is the tiny Mediterranean fruit fly, which has threatened Florida many times in the second half of the 20th century. The Florida citrus market is also challenged by overseas competition, especially from Brazil where orange-juice producers aggressively expanded their markets in the 1990s.

A.3.

Sugar

Sugarcane is extremely sensitive to frost, and where frosts occur, it must be replanted every year. The southernmost part of Florida is one of the few places in the mainland United States where such replanting is not necessary. Six to seven crops may be obtained from one planting. The city of Clewiston, on the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee, is the center of Florida’s sugarcane cultivation. Production was expanded after 1961, when the United States stopped importing Cuban sugar because of political differences.

A.4.

Vegetables and Noncitrus Fruits

Florida is noted for the production of early vegetables and fruit. The growing of vegetables and fruit for sale early in the year is a modern development that owes its advance in part to the demand for fresh vegetables in states north of Florida. Florida’s warm near-tropical climate allows its farmers to produce crops earlier than farmers in most other states and thus to obtain good prices in cities north of Florida. Tomatoes are the most valuable winter crop, and potatoes, sweet corn, celery, carrots, and lettuce are also grown.

Watermelons are a valuable summer crop in Florida and, like early vegetables, they are shipped mainly to Northern cities. Strawberries are another important crop. The Plant City area, east of Tampa Bay, is the center for strawberry cultivation. Together with Sanford, it is also a leading celery-producing center. Cucumbers are grown mainly in northern Florida, and early white potatoes are a specialty of the Hastings area. Among the other kinds of fruit grown in Florida are avocados, figs, persimmons, guavas, mangoes, pineapples, peaches, and grapes.

A.5.

Livestock

Florida is one of the major cattle-raising states east of the Mississippi River. The rolling grassland in central Florida is the heart of the beef cattle country. Rodeos, ranches, and cowboys there provide an atmosphere more characteristic of the West than of the Atlantic Coast. Dairying meets the demand for fresh milk and other dairy products within the state. Thoroughbred horses are also raised in large numbers. Most of the stud farms are in the Ocala area of north central Florida. Poultry raising is an important, growing segment of the state’s livestock industry. Some hogs and sheep are also raised in Florida.

A.6.

Other Agricultural Products

Tobacco is grown mainly in northern Florida. Cultivation began in the 1920s, after the boll weevil destroyed much of the cotton crop. The city of Live Oak is the leading tobacco market. Tung trees, whose nuts yield an oil used in paints and varnishes, are also grown in northern Florida. Flowers and foliage plants are grown in greenhouses and nurseries in the central and southern parts of the state.

B.

Fisheries

Florida’s principal fishing ports are Pensacola and Apalachicola on the Gulf Coast, Fernandina Beach and New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic coast, and Key West. Pink shrimp, which is landed mainly from Tampa to Key West, is the most valuable seafood in the south. White and brown shrimp are landed in Apalachicola Bay. Other fish and shellfish caught commercially include lobster, red snapper, grouper, king and Spanish mackerel, black mullet, weakfish, and blue and stone crab. In addition, there are oyster beds in Apalachicola Bay. Florida is also the principal U.S. source of sponges, but overfishing and the onset of a sponge disease in the 1940s greatly reduced Florida’s sponge output.

Sport fishing is popular in Florida. It is an important tourist lure and an important source of income in many communities. Game fish abound in the state’s inshore and offshore waters. Lake Okeechobee, the chief fresh water fishing area, is noted for black bass. The Florida Keys are known for a variety of oceanic fish species including tarpon, marlin, snapper, and grouper.

C.

Forestry

Forests cover 47 percent of Florida’s total land area. The state’s pine forests were noted in earlier centuries as a source of lumber and of pitch and tar, called naval stores, and in the 19th century they were greatly depleted. However, new forests were planted on much of the cutover land. Lumbering activities in the state have greatly expanded since the 1940s.

D.

Mining

Phosphate rock is the most important mineral mined in Florida, and Florida leads the nation in its production. The phosphate occurs in shallow beds in central and northern Florida, and the center of the industry is in Bartow near Lakeland. Most of it is used in fertilizers.

Petroleum and natural gas became two of Florida’s most important minerals after the discovery of a large oil field north of Pensacola in 1970. By the mid-1980s, most of these oil and gas reserves were virtually depleted. However, it is believed that significant deposits may lie below the ocean floor of the Gulf of Mexico, particularly off the state’s northwestern coast. Despite pressure from oil and gas companies to secure leases for exploratory drilling, the state government refuses to permit drilling within 160 km (100 mi) of the Florida coast and strongly opposes all offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Other leading minerals include stone, cement, clays, and sand and gravel.

Florida accounts for most of the nation’s production of zircon, which is used in making furnace brick and electronic equipment. The state ranks first in the production of titanium concentrates, which are used in the manufacture of white pigments for paint. Florida also ranks first in the output of masonry cement and peat.

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.