WINTER HAVEN – The ongoing problems of pre-harvest fruit drop and small size sent the 2012-13 Florida orange crop down another 1 million boxes, and few industry observers think that's the last of the reductions until the season wraps up in June.
"In my opinion, you'll continue to see a drop in the crop estimate," said Kyle Story, a Lake Wales-based grower. "I think it would be hard to find anybody in the industry who believes there's 138 million boxes (of oranges) left on the trees."
Story was referring to Wednesday's U.S. Department of Agriculture monthly citrus crop update, which reported this season's projected orange crop at 138 million, down 1 million from the March report. The harvest of early and mid-season oranges finished at 67 million boxes in March, so the entire 1 million-box reduction came in late-season Valencia oranges, not at 71 million boxes.
The USDA kept the projected Florida grapefruit crop at 17 million boxes, but it reduced the 2012-13 tangerine forecast by 200,000 boxes to 3.5 million boxes.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Ledger