The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) monthly forecast of the 2013/14 Florida orange crop has decreased slightly to 114m boxes, with other citrus categories also taking a hit.
Thedepartment estimated early-mid orange varieties down 1m to 53m boxes, while Valencias remained at 61m boxes.
During the 2012/13 season, Florida produced 133.6m boxes of oranges.
'Everybody in the industry understands fruit drop has been an issue this season with our earlier varieties,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of the state's largest citrus grower organisationFlorida Citrus Mutual. 'So it's somewhat encouraging we lost less than one percent off the estimate this month. Maybe we've found some stability as we move into our Valencia harvest.
'Despite the challenges we face, Florida growers continue to produce the best citrus products in the world,' he added.
The USDA's estimate of the 2013/14 Florida grapefruit crop dipped 500,000 boxes to 16m boxes, while specialty fruit is now at 4.15m boxes, down 150,000, the USDA reported.
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