With so much emphasis on the navel variety, it's sometimes easy to overlook California's other major orange crop, valencias.
The USDA is currently forecasting a valencia crop of approximately 30m cartons (17 kg) for the coming season, slightly larger than in 2009, and picking should get underway in earnest by the end of March.
"It should be a good eating year for valencias," said Izak Du Toit of Booth Ranches, whose company expects to ship as much as 800,000 cartons this year. "Brix levels are already exceeding 11 per cent and we're just waiting for the acid levels to drop a little bit further to get going on the season."
The size curve is expected to peak on 88 count and 113s with an ample supply of 138s, although that could change if the rain keeps falling in the San Joaquin Valley and causes fruit to grow.
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