The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its April crop forecast for Florida's citrus industry, reporting that there had been no movement in estimated orange volumes from March, when production was pegged at 142m boxes.
That total, the USDA confirmed, was made up of 70m early and mid-season varieties, along with 72m boxes of Valencia oranges.
It was a similar story for grapefruit, with the estimate remaining unchanged at 19.6m boxes.
There was some movement for Florida specialty fruit, meanwhile, the USDA's tangelo estimate increased by 50,000 boxes to a total 1.15m boxes, while the tangerine forecast climbed by 100,000 boxes to 4.5m overall.
'Today's crop forecast is a reflection of the industry's year-to-date harvest, as well as what we anticipate seeing through the rest of the season,' said Florida Citrus Mutual executive vice-president and CEO Michael Sparks. 'What's not reflected in this forecast is any fruit loss that may have occurred during the end-of-March storms that ripped through much of the citrus growing region.'
The USDA makes its initial Florida citrus forecast in October and then revises it monthly until the end of the season in July.
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