Posts Tagged “citrus production”
U.S. citrus growers will struggle to grow output in the next 10 years, the USDA predicts in its annual outlook report.
In fact, the USDA predicts U.S. citrus output will decline from 11.2 billion pounds in 2022 to 9.8 billion pounds in 2032. That loss in citrus production will be offset by gains in noncitrus fruit and tree nut output, the report said.
Citrus production will decline “largely due to further attrition of bearing acreage in Florida’s orange and grapefruit industries.” Citrus production in California — the top producing state of fresh market oranges, lemons and tangerines — is projected to remain steady.
Total value of citrus production in the U.S. is projected to remain steady because of higher prices due to smaller domestic supply, the report said.
The USDA report said total combined farm value of fruit, tree nuts, vegetable and pulse crop (dry beans, dry peas, lentils and chickpeas) production is projected to reach $59 billion by calendar year 2032, up from $49 billion in 2021.
Over the next 10 years, vegetable and pulse crop production is expected to grow more slowly than in the previous decade, rising by 4% between 2023 and 2032.
“This primarily reflects technical measurement challenges associated with documenting the growth of protected culture [crops], which displaces field-grown area, and to rising import competition,” the report said. “Imports are expected to continue to rise as U.S. consumers demand a more diverse, competitively priced, year-round vegetable supply.”
The USDA said its challenges with documenting the growth of protected culture largely center on the rapid growth of the protected culture subsector (mostly greenhouses and urban vertical farms) that is slowly replacing field-grown production for several major fresh vegetables.
“With some exceptions, this [protected culture] sector is still not well represented in traditional USDA data collection programs that have recorded declining field-grown area and production for some crops,” the USDA said.
In recent years, there has been a rapid rise of import volume across many fresh and processed vegetables, including imports of organic foods produced in the Southern Hemisphere, the USDA said. USDA projections assume imports will continue to rise.
Despite expanding production of higher-priced vegetables such as broccoli and organic vegetables, the value of fresh-market vegetable production, excluding melons, is projected to increase by less than 1% between 2021-23 and 2030-32 as price pressure continues from strong import growth, the report said.
In terms of production, the report said key fresh-market vegetables over the next 10 years include lettuce, onions, carrots and sweet potatoes.
“Within the lettuce subsector, growth is projected in romaine while field-grown leaf production and iceberg output decline,” the USDA said. Field-grown leaf lettuce share is expected to be limited by rising protected culture output, the report said.
Projected U.S. potato production will grow 9% as value rises 10% over the 2022-32 baseline period, the USDA said.
“While planted acres are forecast to increase in 2023, total planted acres in the top 13 potato producing states are forecast to remain flat through the remainder of the baseline period,” the USDA said.
Commercial domestic mushroom production is forecast to decline slightly in the early part of the projection period, followed by steady production.
Mushroom farm value is projected to reach about $1.2 billion by 2032, a 15% increase over the 10-year period, the USDA said.
A decline in U.S. citrus production land shipments during the next decade is predicted by the USDA, while increases with items such as nuts will increase.
Citrus production is projected to decline slowly over the ten-year projection period, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Projecions to 2018.
U.S. citrus production will decline from 16.07 billion pounds in 2019 to 14.7 billion pounds in 2028, the agency said.
“The expected declines stem from the loss of bearing acreage in Florida and the continued spread of citrus greening, a citrus disease spread by insects for which no cure currently exists and which has the potential to threaten the entire citrus industry,” the report said. “Declines in citrus production are projected to be offset by increases in noncitrus production.”
Meanwhile, the USDA reported expanding acreage of tree nuts in response to rising demand will boost production and tree nut output will continue to grow over the next ten years.
Big picture
U.S. fruit, nut and vegetable production farm value is projected to grow 2.7 percent annually for the next decade.
The USDA said estimated total farm value of fruits, nuts, and vegetables will reach $68.2 billion by 2028, up from $53.9 billion in 2019.
According to the report, fruits contribute roughly 43 percent of the total value, tree nuts account for 18 percent, and vegetables nearly 40 percent.
Measured by farm weight, the USDA said production of fruit and tree nuts, and vegetables, are projected to rise at an annual growth rate of 0.52% and 0.54 percent per year, respectively.
The USDA said:
- Overall fruit and tree nut production is expected to reach roughly 63 billion pounds in 2028;
- The value of farm production of fruit and tree nuts is projected to grow at roughly 2.7 percent annually, with tree nuts expected to grow 3% per year, citrus at just under 3 percent, and noncitrus at 2.5 percent per year;
- Over the next 10 years, the shares of vegetable production for fresh use and processing are expected to remain at current levels, according to the USDA;
- Fresh use is expected to account for roughly 28% of total vegetable production while processed vegetables are projected to make up about 30% of total production;
- U.S. fresh vegetable production is projected at 39.5 billion pounds in 2019, and is predicted to rise slightly to 39.8 billion pounds in 2028;
- U.S. noncitrus fruit production will grow from 37.6 billion pounds in 2019 to 40.3 billion pounds in 2028;
- U.S. tree nut production will rise from 6.8 billion pounds in 2019 to 8.3 billion pounds in 2028; and
- U.S. potato production will grow from 46.1 billion in 2019 to 47.4 billion pounds in 2028.
By USDA
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the availability of $22 million in grants to help citrus producers fight Huanglongbing (HLB), commonly known as citrus greening disease. This funding is available through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) Citrus Disease Research and Extension Program (CDRE), which was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and is administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
“Since 2009, USDA has committed significant resources to manage, research and eradicate the citrus greening disease that threatens citrus production in the United States and other nations,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Thanks to the continued, coordinated efforts between growers, researchers, and state and federal government, we are getting closer every day to ending this threat. The funding announced will help us continue to preserve thousands of jobs for citrus producers and workers, along with significant revenue from citrus sales.”
USDA has invested more than $380 million to address citrus greening between fiscal years 2009 and 2015, including $43.6 million through the SCRI CDRE program since 2015.
HLB was initially detected in Florida in 2005 and has since affected all of Florida’s citrus-producing areas. A total of 15 U.S. states or territories are under full or partial quarantine due to the detected presence of the Asian citrus psyllid, a vector for HLB. Those states include Alabama, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
USDA has employed both short-term and longer-term strategies to combat citrus greening. Secretary Vilsack announced a Multi-Agency Coordination framework in December 2013 to foster cooperation and coordination across federal and state agencies and industry to deliver near-term tools to citrus growers to combat Huanglongbing. The Huanglongbing MAC Group includes representatives from the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), USDA NIFA, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, Environmental Protection Agency, State Departments of Agriculture from California, Florida, Texas and Arizona, and the citrus industry
by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam released the following statement recently after the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its citrus crop forecast for the 2015-2016 season:
“Today’s updated citrus forecast reflects a nearly 70 percent decline in the production of our state’s signature crop since the late 1990s. The long-term future of Florida citrus, and its $10 billion annual economic impact, depends on a breakthrough in the fight against greening.”
The USDA’s forecast of 76 million boxes of oranges, up from 71 million boxes last month, represents a decline of nearly 70 percent since the peak of citrus production at 244 million boxes during the 1997-98 season.
This past legislative session, Commissioner Putnam helped secure more than $24 million in state funding to continue critical research and support Florida’s citrus industry.
For more information about the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, visit FreshFromFlorida.com. 
U.S. citrus shipments and production will steadily decline over the next ten years, according to new projections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The projection also can be used as guide to what direction produce shipments will take over the next decade.
The USDA’s recent Agricultural Projections to 2025 report said U.S. citrus fruit production, which has been affected by citrus greening disease, is forecast to drop by an average of 1% per year in the next decade. The forecast for falling production is linked to continued declines of bearing acreage, notably in Florida, according to the report.
USDA projections call for total U.S. citrus output to drop from 18.4 billion pounds in 2015 to 14.3 billion pounds by 2025. The projections indicate that non-citrus fruit production will rise from 36.9 billion pounds in 2015 to 39.9 billion pounds in 2025, a gain of 8% over 10 years. Tree nut production will rise at a faster clip, according to the USDA, with output pegged at 6.08 billion pounds in 2025, up 24% from 2015.
The agency said total U.S. production of fruit, nuts, and vegetables is projected to rise by 0.6% annually in the next decade. While processing vegetable production is forecast to rise 0.8% annually over the next ten years, agency economists predict a modest 0.1% per year increase in fresh market vegetable production.
Fresh market vegetable shipments will barely increase from 41.3 billion pounds in 2015 to 41.7 billion pounds by 2025, according to the USDA.