The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) monthly forecast for the 2013/14 Florida orange crop has remained stable at 115m boxes.
The USDA estimated early-mid orange varieties held steady at 54m boxes while Valencia remained at 61m boxes.
'Growers are battling HLB (citrus greening) on a daily basis so it's somewhat of a relief that the crop remained the same as we shift to our Valencia harvest,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, referencing a bacterial disease spreading throughout Florida's citrus regions. 'The good news is that Congress and president Obama passed and signed a Farm Bill that contains US$125m over the next five years for citrus research.
'The investment in our industry will most certainly pay dividends as the best and brightest minds are working to solve this puzzle,' he added.
The USDA's estimate for the 2013/14 Florida grapefruit crop rose slightly to 17m boxes, up from 16.5m boxes. Specialty fruit is now at 4.3m boxes, down 100,000.
