The latest citrus forecast released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicting a smaller orange crop for the 2008-09 season may mean higher prices for Florida growers.
But increased prices for the produce likely won’t make up for the increased cost to combat pests and disease.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year predicted the crop to yield about 166 million boxes. December’s orange crop estimate was down by 1 million boxes.
The early and midseason crop forecast also dropped to 87 million boxes, down from 88 million boxes earlier this year. Unchanged was the USDA’s prediction that 23 million boxes of grapefruit will be produced in the 2008-2009 season.
Michael W. Sparks, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a press release on Thursday the industry has a historically large inventory of juice that still needs to be moved.
“Florida citrus growers need higher returns to handle increased production costs due, in part, to unprecedented disease pressures and high input prices,” Sparks said.
“Hopefully, the reduced crop will spur higher prices to growers.”
Gary Russ, Manatee County citrus grower, doesn’t think that a decrease in 1 million boxes will decrease prices enough.
“It’s pretty dreary.,” he said. “We need quite a bit more than what they’re paying.”
Expenses in the past three years have doubled per acre.
“We’re different than retailers. We have nowhere to pass our expenses, so basically what we get out of our product we have to live with,” he said. “It’s a tough business.”
The Florida citrus industry has an $9.3 billion annual economic impact, covering more than 576,000 acres, according to Florida Citrus Mutual.
Every grower receives a different amount for their citrus. Prices have been hovering around 80 cents per pound solid, but there have been reports as low as 75 cents per pound solid for juice. Solids represent the ratio between juice and sugar content.
“It’s a terrible time for the price to be down when all the products we use are going up,” she said.
Growers most recent formidable foe has been citrus greening, a disease spread by psyllid insects. Greening, which has only been in Florida for a couple of years, spread much faster than was expected.
Orange jasmine, a popular ornamental plant found in most retail nursery or plant suppliers is also known to host greening.
When growers spray to ward off the psyllids in their groves, the insects can find a haven in the plant and return to infect the groves after they have been sprayed. “That makes it harder because if you’ve got something that’s popular and it’s in many Florida residents’ yards, it’s virtually impossible to wipe out the insect,” she said. “It definitely complicates the process.”
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