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Highlands Today

Orange Estimate Decreases Slightly

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Special to Highlands Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 21, 2008

LAKELAND - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reduced its November orange crop estimate by 1 million boxes. Now, 165 million boxes of oranges are expected to be produced during the 2008-2009 season.

"Hopefully, the reduced crop will spur higher prices to growers," said Michael W. Sparks, CEO of the growers association Florida Citrus Mutual. "Florida citrus growers need higher returns to handle increased production costs due, in part, to unprecedented disease pressures and high input prices."

"At the same time, the industry is sitting on historically large inventories of juice and we need to move some of that product out of the pipeline," Sparks said. "Despite these and other challenges facing Florida citrus, I'm optimistic this is going to be a good year for growers."

A lower forecast for early and midseason orange varieties in Florida accounts for the estimate's decrease. The early and midseason crop is now projected at 87 million boxes, down from 88 million boxes, and Valencias are projected to total 78 million boxes this season. The yield for from-concentrate orange juice is expected to be 1.58 gallons per 90-pound box, down from 1.59.

Florida's specialty fruit estimate stayed the same; the USDA predicts 1.5 million boxes of tangelos and 4.9 million boxes of tangerines. About 23 million boxes of grapefruit are expected in '08-'09.

The economic impact of the Florida citrus industry is $9.3 billion; including 76,000 workers and 576,000 acres of land.

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