The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) latest monthly forecast for the 2013/14 Florida orange crop climbed by 300,000 boxes to a total 110.3m boxes – a rare bit of good news for the state's US$9bn citrus industry.
Early-mid varieties accounted for the full increase, coming in at 53.3m boxes, while Valencias remained stable at 57m boxes.
'This is good news and we are hopeful there will not be any more decreases throughout the last two months of season,' said Michael Sparks, executive vice-president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. 'It has been a challenging season to say the least but growers continue to produce quality fruit which is a testament to their resiliency.'
The USDA's estimate for the 2013/14 Florida grapefruit crop decreased 400,000 boxes, from 16m boxes to 15.6m boxes. White grapefruit increased by 100,000 boxes while coloured grapefruit were reduced by 500,000 boxes. Specialty fruit held steady at 3.83m boxes.
During the 2012/13 season, Florida produced 133.6m boxes of oranges.
