The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest crop estimate for the 2014/15 Florida orange crop has remained level at 103m boxes.
The USDA held early-mid and Valencia orange varieties at 48m and 55m boxes respectively.
“We still have a few months left in the season but it is good to see the estimate stabilise a bit, especially in this challenging environment,” said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “Of course the quality of Florida citrus continues to be second to none.
“We are so appreciative of the USDA’s announcement to fund US$30m worth of additional citrus research,' he added. 'I would like to extend a “thank you” from our entire industry to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for all that he’s doing to make sure our industry continues to produce healthy citrus products while serving as a strong economic engine to the state of Florida.'
The USDA’s estimate of the 2014/15 Florida grapefruit crop stayed at 15m boxes, while specialty citrus decreased to 3.2m boxes with tangelos accounting for the entire 100,000 box drop.
