The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its July citrus crop forecast, the final one of the 2010/11 campaign, with the orange crop showing a 1m-box reduction to a total 139m boxes.
While the June-July number fell, the overall orange crop actually came in 4 per cent larger than the previous year, when Florida growers produced 133.6m boxes of oranges.
The drop in the orange crop occurred in Valencias, he USDA noted, which were down to 69m boxes from 70m last month, with early and mid-season varieties in at 70m boxes.
Estimates for the grapefruit crop remained stable at 19.9m boxes, down on the previous year's total of 20.3m boxes, while the specialty fruit segment saw tangelos steady at 1.15m boxes and tangerines in at 4.6m boxes.
'This has really been a successful season for Florida citrus growers,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'With all the challenges we faced, from cold weather to pest and disease to the drought conditions, the quality of the 2010/11 crop shows how skilled the Florida citrus grower is at producing their product. We look forward to next season.'
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