The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revealed that its estimate for the 2012/13 Florida citrus crop has dropped by 3 per cent to 142m boxes, with the majority of the decrease the result of lower Valencia volumes.
Valencias dropped 3m boxes to a total 76m boxes, with early-mid fruit dropping1m boxes to 65m boxes, the USDA reported.
'Several variables such as rainfall, disease pressure, fruit size and significant fruit drop has made it a very tricky year for crop forecasting,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'Fruit drop in early-mids and small sizes in Valencias are most likely the cause of this decrease.
'We do know that Florida growers are continuing to produce the best quality citrus in the world,' he added.
Specialty fruit and grapefruit figures remain stable, with 1.1m boxes of tangelos, 3.8m boxes of tangerines and 18m boxes of grapefruit expected to be harvested.
