Florida citrus production just 16 mil boxes
CALIFORIA AT 46 MILLION BOXES
-February 10,2023-
USDA’s recent February report estimates Florida’s all orange production at 16 million boxes, down another 11% from last month. Fruit drop continues to be a problem with USDA noting “current droppage is above the maximum and projected to be above maximum at harvest.”
Early forecasts predicted the 2022-2023 Florida citrus season was going to be a struggle — even before the hurricanes struck. Now, if the latest numbers hold, it will be 61% less than last season’s final production.Besides hurricanes the Florida industry has been decimated by citrus greening disease.
Meanwhile, California’s all orange production continues to climb from last year when we produced 40 million boxes. This year the USDA estimate is 46 million boxes although the Valencia boxes are down to 8,100,000 boxes this year from 8,600,000 last season.