'Growers are taking advantage of the improved weather to salvage as many fruit and vegetable crops as possible to mitigate the damage and their losses,' said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson, in a statement. 'The ability to get the products where they need to go is critical to reducing the losses and ensuring these commodities get to the public.'
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is continuing to assess the damage caused by the record cold temperatures that hammered the state for more than a week.
Bronson said the losses could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but added that it's not yet possible to put an exact number on the crop losses until farmers complete harvesting as much as they can.
