The USDA’s January forecast for the production of a number of US citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruit and mandarins, shows mixed figures compared to the December estimate for the 2020/21 season.
Starting with oranges, last month’s forecast showed volumes of all variants decreased by 11.3 million cases from the 2019/20 season to 56 million cases.
January figures continued with this trend decreasing, informing that the total national production will probably be two million boxes less than 54 million.
What’s more, specific estimates for non-Valencia orange production in Florida are forecast to decline by nine percent, showing that production will drop from 22 million in December to 20 million this month.
Florida Valencia orange production was unchanged at 34 million cases. The current fruit size is below average and is expected to remain that way at harvest.
Grapefruit production figures forecast for December were also lower than last year’s figures by 450,000 boxes. However, the January figures break the trend with an expected increase of five percent or 200,000 boxes.
If updated, this increase will still be five percent less than last season’s final grapefruit production.
Following suit, crop estimates for California and Texas for the current year increased by 400,000 and 100,000 boxes, respectively.
Meanwhile, the January forecast for mandarin production was unchanged at 1.1 million boxes, up eight percent from last season’s 1.02 million boxes.
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