The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that it has raised the orange crop forecast for the 2011/12 season by 1m boxes, estimating that Florida will now produce 147m boxes from the 146m boxes predicted in February.
According to the USDA, the increase was seen entirely in early and mid-season varieties, with the estimate rising from 73m to 74m boxes, while Valencias remained stable at 73m boxes.
'Today's crop forecast is a reflection of the industry's year-to-date harvest,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, 'As well as what we anticipate seeing through the rest of the season.'
The USDA predicts Florida will harvest 18.7m boxes of grapefruit in 2011/12, showing no change from the February forecast, while Florida specialty fruit is expected to come in at 1.15m boxes for tangelos and 4.3m boxes for tangerines.
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