The harvest season has started early for a couple of Florida oranges. “We’re taking our first crop of our earlier crops, however the bulk of the crop won’t start until around the middle of October. There are a couple of areas that are ready,” says Doug Feek of Feek Family Citrus. The beginning of the Florida orange crop is taking place in the same way as it was last year.
For the Florida orange crop Feek states that it’s down tiny bit. “However there will be plenty of fruits for fresh markets,” he says, saying that Brix levels as well as juice levels also appear to indicate that they’ll be higher. “So we should have an extremely high-quality crop from the data we’ve gathered. There will be plenty to satisfy the demands of the market for fresh juice, but the overall yield for juice could be reduced slightly.”
Small sizing for the moment.
Additionally, he says that size is currently small with about the same size that was the previous year. The harvest will be at its peak between the 125s and 138s. It will be then 100s, followed by a small numbers of 80s and bigger.
The demand is expected to be up due to California closing the juice oranges it produces and Midknight oranges that come from South Africa in tighter supply this time of year. In addition, Texas isn’t going to remain ready for three or four weeks, and Mexico too.
All of this leaves prices slightly higher than the previous year. “Primarily this is because the prices for our juices will go increasing and it’s not just Florida. Mexico as well as Texas will be experiencing the same issue,” says Feek.
For further information:
Doug Feek
Feek Family Citrus
Tel:1 (772) 473-3885
[email protected]
https://feekfamilycitrus.com/
Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies