Heading into the thickest part of the California's orange season, growers are picking larger-sized fruit. With a bump in larger fruit, prices for those sizes have fluctuated.“As an industry, we're about 40 percent through the orange season,” said Mike Roberts, sales manager for Suntreat. “We're into Washingtons, Atwoods and some late-variety Navels.” He noted that there might a greater abundance of larger-sized fruit right now because growers have held off on picking due to a slow domestic market. But, at this stage of the season, some of the fruit must be picked in order to be sold, and the longer fruit is on the tree, the larger it gets.
“Peak sizes are 72s and 88s, but packing houses are handling the larger-sized fruit before they size out,” explained Roberts. “Some people have a lot of the larger sizes and some people don't, so, while prices are fairly steady, there is a bigger range on prices for larger fruit.”
On February 20, prices for a carton of size 48 Navel oranges out of Central and Southern California were between $16.80 and $20.90. A carton of 22s ranged in price between $14.80 and $18.90, and a carton of 88s ranged in price between $11.80 and $14.90.
For more information:
Mike Roberts
Suntreat
+1 559 562 4988