Newly released figures have confirmed that during 2022-2023, Florida had its worst citrus season in almost a century. The challenges the growers were already facing were made worse by an early-season hurricane.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday issued a final report that showed a huge drop-off in production from the 2021-2022 season. The industry would have to go back to the 1929-1930 season to find comparable numbers.
Growers produced 15.85 million boxes of oranges during the 2022-2023 season, down from 41.2 million boxes during the 2021-2022 season, which itself marked a continued decrease in production. A little more than two decades ago, annual production topped 200 million boxes of oranges and 50 million boxes of grapefruit.
In the 2022-2023 season, growers produced 1.81 million boxes of grapefruit, down from 3.33 million boxes in the 2021-2022 season. The state also produced 480,000 boxes of specialty crops, mostly tangerines and tangelos, down from 750,000 boxes in 2021-2022. The industry uses a standard of 90-pound boxes.
Chances of a rebound might be two or three years off, as new plantings take hold and surviving trees recover from the stresses of getting hammered last fall by Hurricane Ian.
Florida July forecast
As far as looking ahead goes, the USDA is predicting Florida all orange production to go up 1 percent. Non-Valencia orange production is forecast to remain unchanged, while Valencia orange production should rise 1 percent. All grapefruit production will go down 1 percent, and all tangerine and tangelo production will drop 2 percent.
Click here to view the whole datasheet.
Source: actionnewsjax.com