Citrus shipments for the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are expected to continue through mid- to late May.
Wonderful Citrus, with offices in California and South Texas should be shipping Texas grapefruit and Texas oranges through May this season.
At Texas Citrus Mutual of Mission, about 40 percent of its grapefruit and 75 percent of its late oranges remained to be shipped as of March 25.
Total Texas grapefruit shipments forecast by the USDA stand at 6.2 million boxes for the 2018-19 season, up from 4.8 million boxes in 2017-18.
South Texas Organics of Mission, said it should finish with it’s organic valencia orange shipments as well as its Rio Star grapefruit the last half of April.
The USDA reports through the middle of March season-to-date domestic shipments of Texas grapefruit totaled 134.7 million pounds, down from 172.3 million pounds a year ago. Total shipments last season were 205.6 million pounds.
Texas export shipments of grapefruit totaled 10.1 million pounds by mid-March, down from 14.6 million pounds a year ago. Total grapefruit export shipments a year ago were 15.2 million pounds.
Texas Orange Shipments
Texas orange shipments through mid-March were 69.6 million pounds, off from 99.2 million pounds at the same time a year ago.
Total Texas orange shipments last season totaled 121.9 million pounds, the USDA reports.
In December, the USDA predicted Texas all-orange output for 2018-19 at 2.4 million boxes, up from 1.88 million boxes in the 2017-18 season.