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Florida orange crop 2007-08 estimate unchanged
United States
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Florida’s orange crop estimate for the 2007-08 season remains the same at 168.5 million boxes.
Growers are expected to produce 80.5 million boxes of early midseason fruit, 3 million boxes of navels and 85 million boxes of Valencias, according to a revised citrus forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We’re in the stretch run of the ’07-’08 Florida citrus season and this has certainly been a good, quality crop,” said Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, in a news release today.
“We’ve rebuilt inventories to the point where we’re concerned about fruit prices to growers and that’s something we will have to watch as the season ends and we head into ’08-’09.”
The Florida citrus industry saw a decline in orange production from 230 million boxes to 129 million boxes between the 2001-02 season and the 2006-07 season in large part due to the hurricanes, development, pests and diseases, such as citrus canker and greening.
The current orange crop estimate would be a 31 percent increase from last season. The USDA issues its initial estimate in October and then revises it monthly through the end of the citrus season in July.
In today’s revised estimate, Florida grapefruit increased from 26.3 million boxes to 26.5 million boxes. Tangelos remained unchanged at 1.5 million boxes and tangerines increased from 5.3 million boxes to 5.5 million boxes.
Growers are expected to produce 80.5 million boxes of early midseason fruit, 3 million boxes of navels and 85 million boxes of Valencias, according to a revised citrus forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We’re in the stretch run of the ’07-’08 Florida citrus season and this has certainly been a good, quality crop,” said Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, in a news release today.
“We’ve rebuilt inventories to the point where we’re concerned about fruit prices to growers and that’s something we will have to watch as the season ends and we head into ’08-’09.”
The Florida citrus industry saw a decline in orange production from 230 million boxes to 129 million boxes between the 2001-02 season and the 2006-07 season in large part due to the hurricanes, development, pests and diseases, such as citrus canker and greening.
The current orange crop estimate would be a 31 percent increase from last season. The USDA issues its initial estimate in October and then revises it monthly through the end of the citrus season in July.
In today’s revised estimate, Florida grapefruit increased from 26.3 million boxes to 26.5 million boxes. Tangelos remained unchanged at 1.5 million boxes and tangerines increased from 5.3 million boxes to 5.5 million boxes.
