The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its 2010/11 citrus crop forecast for May, with orange volumes dropping by 2m boxes on the previous month to a total of 140m boxes.
The 140m-box forecast is made up of 70m early and mid-season varieties, and 70m Valencias, down from 72m last month.
For Florida specialty fruit, the USDA's tangelo estimate remained at 1.15m boxes, with the tangerine forecast up by 100,000 boxes to 4.6m boxes.
Grapefruit volumes remained unchanged, meanwhile, coming in at 19.6m boxes, according to the USDA.
'We understand their has been a little more fruit drop and smaller sizes than initially expected,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'This is still a quality crop and I think we came through the cold weather earlier this year better than expected.'
The USDA makes its initial citrus forecast in October and then revises it monthly until the end of the season in July.
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