The citrus crop forecast showed a 2 percent drop from last month in all oranges for California. In total, the U.S. all-orange forecast for the 2016-2017 season dropped 3 percent from last month and is down 13 percent from the 2015-2016 final utilization.
The California Valencia orange forecast is 7.80 million boxes (312,000 tons), down 13 percent from previous forecast and down 10 percent from the previous season. This results in a California all-orange forecast of 51.8 million boxes (2.07 million tons), down 2 percent from the previous forecast and down 4 percent from last season’s final utilization. Objective survey measurements taken during January and February indicated that fruit set per tree was lower than the previous year and the lowest since 2009, but the measured average fruit size was slightly above the previous year.
Hear the full report from Mark Hudson of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in Washington, D.C.
Read the full citrus crop forecast report.
The next USDA citrus crop forecast will be released on Tuesday, April 11, 2017, at 12 noon Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific time. You will be able to hear the forecast here on this website.
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