Citrus Crop Continues to Shrink

The latest USDA crop report shows production declines in the citrus crop.

"We lowered our forecast for Valencia oranges by 1 million boxes to 25 million boxes. Our non-Valencia's are still the same at 19 million boxes and all oranges are now 45 million boxes," says Mark Hudson, NASS state statistician for Florida.

USDA's Florida statistician, Mark Hudson says all oranges last year were down by 35% and Hurricane Irma had a big impact on the citrus crop.

"Our drop is much, much higher, usually its around average 20%, it's up like 50%, so it's much much higher. The initial drop from Irma and then of course citrus greening is still with us and fewer tree numbers too," said Hudson.

He added non-Valencia's are down by 42%, while Valencia are down 27% from the previous year.