Florida orange crop estimate holds steady
Florida orange crop estimate holds steady
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said its estimate of the 2014-15 Florida orange crop remained the same at 103 million boxes, including early-mid and Valencia orange varieties holding at 48 million and 55 million boxes respectively. During the 2013-14 season, Florida produced 104 million boxes of oranges.
"We still have a few months left in the season but it is good to see the estimate stabilize a bit, especially in this challenging environment," Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a press release. "Of course the quality of Florida citrus continues to be second to none."
"We are so appreciative of the USDA's announcement [Feb. 9] to fund $30 million worth of additional citrus research," he said. "I would like to extend a 'thank you' from our entire industry to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for all that he's doing to make sure our industry continues to produce healthy citrus products while serving as a strong economic engine to the state of Florida."
The USDA's estimate of the 2014-15 Florida grapefruit crop stayed at 15 million boxes. Specialty citrus decreased to 3.2 million boxes with tangelos accounting for the entire 100,000 box drop.