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Highlands Today

USDA's 2007-08 Orange Crop Estimate Remains The Same

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Special to Highlands Today

Published: June 14, 2008

LAKELAND – Florida's 2007-2008 orange crop estimate remained the same at 168.5 million boxes, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which released a revised citrus forecast.
The 168.5 million boxes are made up of 80.5 million boxes of Early-Mids, 3 million boxes of Navels and 85 million boxes of Valencias.
"We're in the stretch run of the '07-'08 Florida citrus season and this has certainly been a good, quality crop," said Michael W. Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. "We've rebuilt inventories to the point where we're concerned about fruit prices to growers and that's something we will have to watch as the season ends and we head into '08-'09."
The Florida citrus industry saw a decline in orange production from 230 million boxes to 129 million boxes during the five-year period between the 2001-2002 season and the 2006 2007 season. This reduction was due in large part to the effects of hurricanes, development and pests and diseases such as citrus canker and greening.
A 168.5 million box orange crop would represent about a 31 percent increase from the 2006-2007 season. The USDA issues its initial estimate in October and then revises it each month through the end of the citrus season in July.
In the revised estimate, Florida grapefruit increased from 26.3 million boxes to 26.5 million boxes. Tangelos remained unchanged at 1.5 million boxes and tangerines increased from 5.3 million boxes to 5.5 million boxes.
The complete USDA crop forecast is available from the Florida Agriculture Statistics Service online at http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_StatelFlori... Publications/Citrus/cpfp.htm

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