California's citrus industry was hit by a second night of record-low temperatures this weekend, increasing fears of widespread crop destruction.
Temperatures plummeted to below freezing in counties where most of the state's oranges, lemons and tangerines are grown in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday, according to the US National Weather Service.
“It was a very bad night,” Nancy Lungren, spokeswoman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, told local media.Damage to citrus groves in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California was “widespread” and “significant,” Lungren said. The full impact on the $1 billion sector will not be known, however, until inspectors have a chance to check fruit picked after the cold snap began on Friday.
Citrus growers had rushed to pick as much fruit as possible before the cold weather hit, which should ensure that supplies remain steady for 7-10 days. A freeze watch should remain in effect until Tuesday morning, after which it is hoped that temperatures should return to above zero.
State officials asked fruit packers to keep produce harvested during the freeze off the market for five days so they could look for quality problems and keep damaged fruit off store shelves. Farmers are burning bonfires, blow warm air through 30-foot wind machines, and spray trees with warm irrigation water to combat the problems.
The industry took two years to recover from a 1990 freeze that lasted a week, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, a 2,000-member trade organization. A three-day freeze in December 1998 destroyed 85 per cent of California's citrus crop, a loss valued at $700 million.
Officials estimate the value of the 2007 citrus crop still on the trees at $960m.
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