April orange crop forecast reduced by 400,000 boxes

With the Florida citrus harvest in the final stages of the current season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its April orange crop forecast and reduced the estimate by 400,000 boxes to 157.6 million boxes. Each box is equal to 90 pounds of oranges.

Florida Citrus Mutual Chief Executive Officer Mike Sparks called the state's slightly smaller orange harvest "a manageable crop," small enough to help the industry avoid adding to surplus stocks and "start moving out excess juice inventories."

"The USDA has taken off several million boxes since its initial estimate in October so we are anticipating this should have a positive effect on grower returns," Sparks said in a written statement for the Lakeland-based grower group.

The early and midseason orange crop accounted for all of the reduction for April. The estimate of 84.6 million boxes was down from the previous month's forecast of 85 million boxes.

 

Valencia oranges, the main juice variety, remained at 73 million boxes, and the USDA also held firm with its prediction that 23 million boxes of Florida grapefruit will be produced in the current season.

 

The agency, through its Orlando-based crop forecasting field headquarters, projects the citrus crop numbers monthly from October through July.