Orange Crop Down From This Time Last Year

This time of the year, you would not expect much change in the USDA's forecast for the orange crop; and expectations were met in this week's report.  The Florida all-orange crop forecast came in at 45 million boxes, the same as last month's forecast.

"Compared to last year, all oranges are down 35%, and two years ago, down 45%," said USDA's Florida state statistician Mark Hudson.

He added citrus greening and Hurricane Irma get some of the blame for some of that.  Meanwhile, the California all-orange forecast is also same as last month, 44.5 million boxes, down 8% from last season.  The Texas orange forecast changed quite a bit from the previous forecast, to 2.1 million boxes, up 15% from the last estimate and 54% from last season.

Put it all together and you get a forecast for the U-S at 3.9 million tons, which is just slightly more than last month's estimate, but down 23% from last season.

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