Citrus report

Florida’s cold freeze reduces citrus crops by two point five percent.

Florida’s largest citrus grower, Florida Citrus Mutual , has taken off several million boxes from their earlier estimate in October.

Florida citrus was hit with a cold spell from January- February with temperatures dropping to 28 degrees nights.

The Unites States Department of Agriculture, USD released its report and reduced its earlier estimate by 2.5 percent, or 4 million boxes. The USDA makes its initial forecast in October and then revises it monthly until the end of the season in July .

The crop is now expected to total 158 million boxes.

The executive vice president and CEO, Michael W. Sparks, of Florida Citrus Mutual blamed the reduction to the weather.

“With the field reports we’re getting regarding fruit damage and juice yield loss from the late January and early February freezes we would expect less juice production than we were just a month ago,” Sparks said

“This is most definitely a challenging season,” Sparks said.

In 2007-2008, Florida harvested 170.2 million boxes of oranges.

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