Posts Tagged “Arizona citrus shipments”
Whether you are looking to load citrus in California and Florida, or even Texas or Arizona, good volume is reported, along with strong demand.
The USDA reports domestic growers produced just over 5 million tons of citrus during the 2024-25 season, a slight drop from 2023-24.
California continues to account for a huge share at 84 percent, followed by Florida at 13 percent, and Texas and Arizona for the remaining 3 percent.
Although California orange production fell for season by nearly 1 percent to 45.2 million boxes, tangerine and mandarin volumes rose by 11 percent, while lemons and grapefruit increased by 5 percent each.
California Citrus Mutual of Exeter, CA represents citrus growers and notes navels continue to lead the pack, although easy peelers such as mandarins continue to gain popularity.
Bee Sweet Citrus of Fowler, CA sees strong demand and volume for its leading products, Navel oranges, lemons, and mandarins.
Wonderful Citrus Cooperative of Delano, CA is one of the largest volume players with citrus and is particularly excited about the growth of its mandarin easy peel Wonderful Halos.
The company also reports over the past five years it has seen excellent increases with lemons, which has been exceeded only by mandarins.
Kimball Produce Sales of Pacifica, CA reports lemons as it leading volume item, followed by California navels, Valencias, and limes.
On the down side, Wonderful Halos revealed strong weather problems in December and early January, including heavy rain and dense fog lasting nearly four weeks, created significant challenges across the citrus industry.
These conditions impacted crop yields and quality, contributing to lower overall production industrywide during the front half of the winter season.
Sunkist Growers, Inc. in Valencia, CA, describes recent times with large volume crops as competitive but encouraging, despite a challenging global marketplace and early-season weather-related disruptions.
For the current 2025-26 season, Sunkist report fruit size has been larger than prior years with Navel oranges running about 8 percent above 2024-25 as harvest ramps up, while Cara Cara oranges are showing a 12 percent crop increase.
In easy-peelers, Sunkist’s clementine mandarins were similarly up 19 percent versus the previous season. For lemons, the company is seeing strong volume gains across districts, supported by increased domestic and export movement.
California and Arizona citrus growers got off to a strong start in October and forecast a good performance for the 2022/23 season, predicting strong volumes of large fruit this winter.
USDA reports last season was down about 19%, but citrus growers in California and Arizona are optimistic. The California and Arizona citrus crop is anticipated to rebound from 2021/22’s off season.
Sunkist Growers of Valencia, CA reports this past season, California citrus had a shorter crop with most varieties. It is looking forward to a new season. Shipments of California-grown Sunkist Navel Oranges started in November, alongside the exceptionally large pummelo and Sunkist California Mandarins, followed by cara cara oranges, blood oranges and minneola tangelos.
Sunkist anticipates peak citrus volumes by January with all varieties.
At shipper/packer Bee Sweet Citrus of Fowler, CA, the company is citing larger-than-average navel oranges registering higher-than-normal Brix levels for this this time of year. The San Joaquin Valley operation notes citrus volume in California is slightly up compared to the 2021/22 citrus season, while Florida’s harvest is down substantially.
While Florida Department of Agriculture’s early estimates of the total crop damage for the state’s citrus region totaled over 80% of acres impacted, because Florida produces a very small segment of the overall fresh citrus market, Bee Sweet Citrus believes Florida’s hurricane impact will have a minimal effect on the California shipments.