A new report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revealed that the value of Florida's citrus crop fell below US$1bn (€680m) during the 2008/09 campaign, down to a total of US$993m (€675m).
According to USDA statistics reported in the Lakeland Ledger, Florida growers produced a total of 189.1m boxes of citrus – including oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and tangelos – last season, a drop of 7.2 per cent from 203.8m boxes in 2007/08.
Despite lower volumes, prices failed to rise, with the US$993m that growers received down 22.7 per cent on the US$1.3bn (€883m) that they earned through the previous year.
The US$993m earned marked the lowest return since the 2004.05 campaign, when Florida's citrus producers brought in only US$754.2m (€512.7m).
