Posts Tagged “citrus shipments”
The USDA reports citrus volume for the 2021-22 season totaled 5.61 million tons, down 19% from the 2020-21 season.
California accounted for 62% of total U.S. citrus production; Florida totaled 36%, and Texas and Arizona produced the remaining 2%.
Utilized citrus production in California was down 16% from the 2020-21 season.
California’s all orange production, at 40.4 million boxes, is 18% lower than the previous season. Grapefruit production is down 2% from the 2020-21 season and tangerine and mandarin production is down 40%.
Florida’s orange production, at 41.1 million boxes, is down 22% from the previous season, the report said. Grapefruit utilization in Florida, at 3.33 million boxes, is down 19% from last season’s utilization. Florida’s total citrus utilization was down 22% from the previous season.
Utilized production of citrus in Texas is down 46% from the 2020-21 season.
Orange production is down 81% from the previous season and grapefruit production is down 29%. Arizona’s production of lemon up 27%.
The value of the 2021-22 U.S. citrus crop was down 13% from last season, to 2.91 billion packinghouse-door equivalent. Orange value of production decreased 9% from last season and grapefruit value is down 27%.
Tangerine and mandarin value of production is down 18% from last season and lemon value of production is down 13% from last season.
REEDLEY, CA — Fruit World, a family-owned, grower-shipper of organic and conventional citrus and more, is reporting a strong season for their premium specialty citrus, including organic Minneola tangelos, Blood oranges and Cara Cara oranges. While California growers are experiencing shortened seasons of navel and mandarin oranges, Fruit World expects a gap-free and strong transition to Valencia season.
“Between last year’s heavy crop and early summer heat, the state has lower production volumes of navels and mandarins, but we’re maintaining good quantities to ship through an early season end of late-March to early-April,” said Bianca Kaprielian, Fruit World co-founder and CEO. “Ending the season early ensures high quality and exceptional color throughout. And since citrus is an alternate bearing crop, we predict a return to steady volumes next season.”
Fruit World expects a seamless transition from navels to Valencias by mid-April. The company anticipates consistent volumes of the summer variety, especially as the season ramps up in May, with availability through the beginning of October.
“We’re also seeing impressive volumes of quality fruit for our specialty citrus varieties, and expect to be shipping into April,” Kaprielian continued. “The overall quality is top notch, and supply is strong for our Minneolas, Blood oranges and Cara Caras, with peak flavor expected from now through the end of the season.”
This is also shaping up to be a banner year for organic lemons from both the Desert (District 3) and Central Valley (District 1) regions, with load volumes available weekly and excellent ad opportunities into May.
Kaprielian stated, “Our statewide growing regions provide us with year-round supply of lemons and orange varieties. In addition to coolers in the desert and Fillmore, we offer consolidated pickup—including desert production—at our cooler in Reedley.”
REEDLEY, CA — Fruit World, a family-owned, grower-shipper of organic and conventional fruit, is expecting a robust citrus season, particularly for this year’s organic lemon crop.
Good volumes of organic lemons from California’s desert region are anticipated through early March. Fruit World will also have diverse citrus shipments throughout the season, including organic and conventional mandarins, organic oranges, and organic specialty citrus such as sweet limes and Minneola tangelos.
“This year’s organic lemon crop is looking very strong—both in terms of volume and quality—and we’re seeing exceptional taste, appearance, and juiciness,” shared Bianca Kaprielian, Fruit World co-founder and CEO. There will be good desert, with its Central Valley ranches filling out availability through May.
Fruit World also expects a strong organic specialty citrus program this year. “This is our second year offering organic sweet limes, and we are already delivering promotable volumes which should last into December,” Kaprielian added.
Fruit World’s flagship mandarin program will kicked off in early November, starting with stem & leaf Satsumas and their proprietary Early Dulce mandarin variety. Organic Satsumas and Clementines started in November, with additional varieties available into April.
A lighter than typical season is expected for mandarins this year, a concern seen industry-wide due to excessive heat in May and June paired with last year’s large crop set affecting this year’s bloom.
The company has already started shipping the organic Rio Red grapefruit variety. It’s California-grown Rio Reds are top-notch quality and have beautiful interior color. There has been strong demand, partly due to last season’s freeze in Mexico and Texas which affected the overall grapefruit supply.
Navel oranges started shipping at the end of October, followed by Minneola tangelos in early December, with the season rounding out with Cara Caras and blood oranges starting in January.
As they plan for the future, Fruit World is expanding their specialty citrus program by planting organic mandarinquats, kumquats, lemonade lemons and more that will be available in upcoming seasons. The company also has a significant amount of mandarin and navel acreage in transition from conventional to organic, including heirloom navels in their second year of transition, so coming years should see increased organic volume.
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About Fruit World
Fruit World grows and ships fruit in California—including organic and conventional citrus, organic grapes, organic stone fruit.
With a steady supply of both domestic and off-shore product, shipper Bee Sweet Citrus of Fowler, CA is prepared to meet summer shipping demand for fresh citrus varieties.
“Citrus fruits remain a household staple for many families, so year-round availability is imperative to meeting the industry’s demand for product,” stated Bee Sweet Citrus Sales Representative Jason Sadoian. “As our summer import program continues to gain momentum, our customers can rely on our team to provide them with Chilean Oranges, Mandarins and Lemons, as well as several domestic varieties to meet their consumer’s needs.”
Available in new, high-graphic packaging, all of Bee Sweet’s off-shore product is checked for quality once it arrives at the company’s main location in Fowler, California. With a dedicated production team trained to facilitate the summer program and the company’s sales team focused on clearance, logistics and inventory, customers can look to the Bee Sweet Citrus team for a successful 12-month citrus program.
“During the summer months, consumers can look to our brand for year-round staples such as Navel Oranges, Lemons and Mandarins, in addition to domestic Valencias, Blood Oranges and Grapefruit,” continued Sadoian. “All of these varieties are flavorful, nutritious and are incredibly versatile.”
Fruit World of Reedley, CA, a family-owned, grower-shipper of organic and conventional fruit, is reporting an exceptional citrus growing season, including a variety of specialty citrus, according to a press release.
The company is shipping conventional and organic mandarins, as well as organic Cara Cara, Blood, and Navel oranges, organic Minneolas, and their year-round mainstay, organic lemons. They are also announcing the transition of even more acreage towards organic certification.
Fruit World is now shipping mandarins now through May, with its highest volumes in early spring.
“We’re unique in how we time the availability of some of our citrus like Cara Caras and Blood Oranges,” said CJ Buxman, Fruit World co-founder and an organic citrus grower. “We start our season a little later so their flavor is at its strongest and sweetest when we ship.
Fruit World will start shipping Cara Caras in mid-January, with Blood Oranges close behind in late January, both available through April. The company’s year-round organic lemon program will also see good volumes from January through April.
Contributing to the company’s citrus production this season will be Heirloom Navel Oranges from Sky Ranch, one of Kaprielian’s family ranches. Sky Ranch’s Heirloom Navel acreage is transitioning to organic, and while this year’s crop will be sold as conventional, it will follow all organic standards.
Fresh citrus shipments as well as orange juice loadings have taken off in recent weeks as shoppers nationwide stock up on vitamin-C packed food and drink items.
California Citrus Mutual of Exeter, CA reports strong supplies of oranges and mandarins as demand increases. The organization notes California fresh citrus volume is capable of meeting consumer demand. Additionally, the Florida orange juice industry has ramped up production.
The U.S. citrus industry has experienced higher demand in the recent weeks for fresh oranges and mandarins due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While demand has started to slow from its peak, shipments are still up. Shipments to the foodservice industry has taken a massive hit, with lemons currently affected the most. However, overall volume for fresh citrus has improved because of consumer demand for nutritious products high in Vitamin C.
This increase comes at a challenging time for the U.S. citrus industry as it faces with citrus greening disease – which had a negative impact on California and Florida crop in past seasons, though the industry saw a slight comeback this year.
Orange juice leaps in sales Although markets are experiencing extreme downturns on average, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shows that frozen orange juice concentrates are performing better than ever before. Soaring 25% in the past month, the market for orange juice is up in a big way.
According to Nielsen data on retail sales of orange juice, provided by the Florida Department of Citrus, frozen orange juice sales have jumped 27 percent.
A partnership has been formed between Veg-Fresh Farms of Corona, CA and citrus grower-packer Redlands Foothill Groves, allowing Veg-Fresh to ship citrus the year-round.
Based in Redlands, CA, the citrus cooperative has over 80 growers of navels, Valencias, grapefruits and lemons, which are packed in the last operating packinghouse in San Bernardino County, according to a news release.
“In addition, being located just 30 miles from our Corona facility, it provides our customers the logistic advantage that we have found so valuable being located in the Inland Empire,” Veg-Fresh managing partner Dino Cancellieri Jr. said in the release.
The partnership will expand retail and foodservice opportunities, Veg-Fresh Farms citrus director Jacob Garcia said, referring to the 96-year-old Redlands Foothill Groves as a “storied packinghouse” that has continued to invest in fruit-grading technologies to improve packing.
Veg-Fresh packs under the Veg-Fresh Farms, Crystal Cove Berry Farms and Good Life Organic labels.
A full lineup of citrus shipments in good volume is seen this season by Fruit World Co. of Reedley, CA.
The conventional and organic fruit grower and shipper has an uninterrupted supply of organic mandarins through the California season, as well as supplies of conventional stem and leaf mandarins, according to a news release.
“We’re excited to be entering citrus season with a robust organic and conventional mandarin program, which this year includes five varieties of organic mandarins and the earliest availability of conventional California mandarins,” CJ Buxman, co-founder of Fruit World and an organic mandarin grower in the San Joaquin Valley, said in the release.
Buxman grows organic satsumas, clementines, Page, Tango and Gold Nugget mandarins, with supplies shipping from November to June. Fruit World expects to increase organic mandarin volumes 20 percent this season.
The company has a year-round California organic lemon program, with peak shipping from November to March. Organic grapefruit ships in early October, followed by navels in late October. Navels peak December through February.
Other varieties, including car acaras, blood oranges, meyer lemons and Minneola tangelos, start shipping in late December, according to the company.
Good volume citrus shipments are expected this season from California and Texas, but the big news could be this may be the year of a turn around for Florida, which has been clobbered in recent years by citrus greening and hurricanes.
Florida citrus shipments may be up a little this year, and that may be a big deal.
The first recently released forecast by the USDA shows a moderate increase in Florida citrus shipments during the 2019-20 season.
The USDA’s first estimate for 2019-20 Florida orange loadings is 74 million boxes, up 3.4 percent from last season. The agency projected Florida grapefruit volume at 4.6 million boxes for the 2019-20 season, up 2 percent from the previous crop. Florida’s combined tangerine and mandarin crop is forecast at 1.05 million boxes, 6 percent higher than a year ago.
“This incremental increase is good news for the industry as we continue to recover from Hurricane Irma and the devastating effects of citrus greening,” Michael Sparks, executive vice president and CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, said in a news release. “We believe that this number — if it holds throughout the year — will strike a nice balance of getting the processors the oranges they need while firming up prices to the Florida citrus grower.”
Sparks said growers are slowing building output after declines caused by citrus greening disease pressures.
“We are not out of the woods but we are making gains,” Sparks said in the release.
The USDA issues its first estimate in October of each year and revises it monthly during the harvest until the end of the season in July.
“This reflects what we’ve been hearing from growers,” Shannon Shepp, executive director of the Florida Department of Citrus, said in a release. “Florida Citrus is here to stay.”
That sentiment was echoed by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
“Today’s forecast reflects the resilience of Florida’s citrus growers, dedication to the citrus industry, and commitment to innovation in the face of challenges,” Fried said in the release. “Citrus is Florida’s signature crop, and we’re committed to supporting our citrus producers with new research, technology, and techniques to fight the spread of citrus greening.”
California, Texas Shipments
In California, navel orange shipments are predicted to be at 47 million boxes, down 6 percent from last season’s final estimate.
The California valencia orange forecast is 9 million boxes, unchanged from last season. Texas orange Volume is forecast at 2.70 million boxes, up 8 percent from a year ago.
Meanwhile, the combined tangerine and mandarin forecast for California is 23 million boxes, down 12 percent from last season.
Grapefruit loadings in California is forecast at 4.2 million boxes, up a whopping 32 percent compared to last season.
Texas grapefruit shipments are projected at 5.7 million boxes, down 7 percent from last year.
Lemon volume in 2019-20 is forecast at 20 million boxes in California, 12 percent less than last season. Arizona lemon output is pegged at 1.4 million boxes, 4 percent higher than last season.
More favorable weather for growing crops has California fruit shipments looking better than at this time last year.
At Anthony Vineyards of Bakersfield, it should start grape shipments from the Coachella Valley within in the next week, which will continue through June. The grape loadings will be shifting to the San Joaquin Valley, where the vast amount of California grape shipments originate. Another big crop exceeding 110 million boxes is expected.
Citrus Shipments
The California citrus industry has been disappointed overall, mainly due to weather factors. However, summer citrus shipments are now looking more favorable with late season valencias replacing navel oranges. Valencias should be available until the Fourth of July.
Grower/shipper Limoneira Co. of Santa Paula, believes California lemon loadings will be off 10 to 15 percent this year as the season ends this month.
Trinity Fruit Sales Co. In of Fresno notes the California mandarin crop is one of the state’s largest. As a result, product which normally winds down in April will be shipped through May. As the company’s domestic season comes to a close it will be importing mandarins for the first time from Peru, Chile and Uruguay,
Melon Shipments
Domestic melon shipments should be plentiful this season. Five Crowns Marketing of Brawley, CA has just started loadings of Origami cantalouple and will continue in the desert through June. The company’s Mexican watermelons are now moving in good volume, and continuing through May, before shifting to Arizona.
Westside Produce of Firebaugh, CA is now shipping cantaloupes and honeydews and will continue in good volume into October.
Stone Fruit Shipments
San Joaquin Valley stone fruit shipments are underway and Trinity Fruit of Fresno anticipates one of its biggest crops. Simonia Fruit Co. of Fowler, CA is expressing optimism for its peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots.
Berry Shipments
California berry shipments were down heading into Easter, however volume is shaping up well for strawberries, blackberries and raspberries from Watsonville and Santa Maria through the summer and well into the fall.
California blueberry shipments should be good through late spring before transitioning to Oregon and British Columbia during the summer months.
Stemilt Growers LLC of Wenatchee, WA just started its California cherry harvest. Last year, California produce only 4 million boxes, but a substantial increase is expected this season.