Florida’s citrus crop could see a significant drop in volume next season but the brunt of the shortfall will be borne by the processed market.
It has been reported that the state could see a fall of as much as 13 per cent, but orange juice businesses are likely to be most severely affected with prices already rising rapidly.
French orange juice processor Louis Dreyfus forecast a crop of 141 million 40.8kg boxes, down from this season’s 162.1m boxes. While Elizabeth Steger from Citrus Consulting International forecast a smaller drop to 154m boxes, according to the Financial Times.
Analysts said the lower crop was caused by the spread of disease and dry weather this year and would keep prices high in the coming months.
But Mike Yetter from the Florida Department of Citrus told freshinfo it was too early to predict accurately. He said: “The 13 per cent drop is not an official forecast. The official forecast will be released by the US department of agriculture on October 9. However, having said that, many in the industry feel that this year's crop will be smaller than last year. Actual numbers are still a guess at this point.
“Over 95 per cent of our orange crop goes to making juice. So any drop in the crop will primarily affect juice production.”
“Right now, we are forecasting 4.9 million boxes of oranges to be shipped into the fresh market. The vast majority will go to the North American market (US and Canada).”
Florida’s citrus crops are the second largest in the world behind São Paulo state in Brazil.
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