By Kyle Peveto
LSU AgCenter
Citrus has been grown in Louisiana for more than three centuries, ever since a Jesuit missionary planted a fruit tree south of present-day New Orleans in 1712.
For decades citrus groves thrived in coastal St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, where producers harvested satsumas, navel oranges and a few other varieties of citrus fruits.
In the past 20 years, disease, insects and hurricanes have battered these groves, and the Louisiana citrus industry has shrunk.