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Citrus crop forecast upgraded

Bradenton Herald – March 11, 2010

MANATEE — After enduring the “freeze that would never end,” Florida citrus growers finally received some good news.

The industry came through the freezing conditions in better shape than expected and the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased the orange crop forecast Wednesday for the 2009-2010 season by 2 million boxes. Despite the good news, consumers still will see higher costs for orange juice in the super market.

Florida growers are expected to produce 131 million boxes of oranges, according to Florida Citrus Mutual. The latest figures reflect a loss of 5 million boxes of fruit from the original forecast in October.

Attention now turns to the sweet smell of blossoming trees expected within the next several weeks. A strong bloom would signal the start of a promising crop that would be harvested next winter.

Hugh Taylor, who has 60 acres of Valencia orange groves in Myakka, and sells all of his crop to juice makers, said the freeze caused some oranges to drop off the trees and for it to affect the juice content of his crop.

“We came through OK,” Taylor said, but the freeze will probably cut into his profits.

Although Taylor remembers colder days in past winters, he does not recall another winter where each night was so consistently cold.

“We had a lot of nights at the 28-degree threshold where you start to see damage,” Taylor said.

Jackie Burns, professor of horticulture at the University of Florida, said the northern tier of growers fared more poorly than growers farther south, but there were pockets of cold damage throughout Florida.

After the first hard freezes, growers reacted quickly to harvest their fruit and the state enacted emergency measures to help get the fruit delivered more quickly to processors, Burns said.

“The resilience of the industry was due to our better way of managing citrus. We also got a significant cold period before the big freeze that hardened the trees and allowed them to weather the cold,” she said.

Although the overall crop forecast improved, the yield of Valencia oranges is expected to be down because of the cold weather.

Pepsico Inc. said Wednesday it is raising prices on its Tropicana orange juice. The company will shrink its most popular size by about 8 percent while maintaining its price and raising the price on another size starting in May. The 64-ounce container of orange juice will drop to 59 ounces. The suggested retail price remains at $3.59. The price of Tropicana’s gallon container of pure premium orange juice will rise between 5 percent and 8 percent. It now costs $6.49.

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