Federal officials said in January they would halt efforts to eradicate the now-entrenched disease.

Canker is a bacteria that weakens trees and scars fruit, but officials said the disease has spread too far as a result of last-year?EUR??,,????'???s hurricanes to make eradication feasible.

While diseased trees will still be removed and burned, thousands of nearby trees potentially exposed to canker will no longer be destroyed.

Many industry experts have long warned that failure to eradicate the disease throughout the state will doom much of Florida’s industry, which has a total economic benefit to the state of $9.1 billion. Merely controlling the disease, they say, will be too expensive an undertaking as the state faces lower-cost competition from Brazil, Mexico and other countries.

About half the family’s organically grown fruit goes to juice and the rest to fresh sales. More Florida fruit will be squeezed for juice now that canker has a permanent foothold. It scars fruit but does not harm the juice.

Florida is the nation’s leading orange grower, second only to the nation of Brazil, which rivals the continental United States in size. Historically, Florida leads all states and nations in grapefruit volume.