WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — This season's Florida's drought-impacted orange and grapefruit crops will be substantiallly down from 2008-09 production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service said recently.
The 2009-10 orange crop will come in at 136 million 90-pound boxes, 16 percent below last season's 162.4 million boxes and 20 percent less than the 170.2 million boxes produced in 2007-08, the USDA said. In non-hurricane years during the last decade, Florida's orange crop has averaged 200 million boxes.
Commercial grapefruit production is predicted to be 19.8 million 85-pound boxes, 9 percent less than the 21.7 million boxes produced last season. Other than the hurricane-affected seasons of 2004-05 and 2005-06, this forecast would be the lowest crop since the 22.3 million boxes of the 1944-45 season, the USDA said.
The tangerine crop is pegged to reach 4.9 million boxes, 27 percent more than last season's production.
Cold fronts, freezing temperatures and below average rainfall affected the crop through May. Heavy afternoon rains and typical Florida weather patterns returned in late May.
Florida's citrus industry is battling canker and greening diseases, with major losses are attributed to them. More than 140,000 acres of former citrus groves have been abandoned. The number of bearing orange trees is down 2 percent from last season, and the average number of fruit per tree is down 19 percent from last season.
Susan Salisbury writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: susan(underscore)salisbury(at)pbpost.com.