The 2023-24 season will continue to be a recovery period for Texas citrus. “Our trees continue healing after the 2021 freeze. Our trees are about 75 percent recovered, our numbers look good and our product is just as delicious as ever, but customers should expect a crop that peaks on smaller fruit as a result of the ongoing drought,” says April Flowers of Lone Star Citrus Growers. Lone Star Citrus will be exhibiting at the upcoming Global Produce & Floral Show in Anaheim, California October 19-21 at booth #3353.
In all, this means supply this season of citrus from Texas should be similar to last year in tonnage and size. Flowers says the crop is slowly coming into production with harvest starting slightly later than normal because of that drought. Lone Star Citrus expects to be in full production by early to mid-November. While 90 percent of the grower-shipper’s grapefruit crop is Rio Red, on oranges, it started with early varieties and navels and will move into Valencias in February.
That drought remains the primary concern for Texas citrus growers. “The Falcon Lake reservoir is at 8.3 percent full and Lake Amistad is at 32 percent. These are historically low numbers that cannot continue to support the farming needs of the Rio Grande Valley,” says Flowers. Adding to this is the fact that while normally September and October are rainy months for South Texas, this year it’s only received a negligible amount of rain over the past six weeks.
Ongoing water concerns
“Despite this, the U.S. continues to regularly deliver water to Mexico, but Mexico consistently fails to deliver water to the U.S. This negatively impacts farmers on both sides of the border in the mid to lower Rio Grande Valley,” says Flowers. “The actions of the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila are unnecessarily withholding water from everyone to the East. We desperately need our U.S. State Department to press the Mexican government to release the water owed under the 1944 water treaty. It is essential our governments work to resolve these water delivery issues so we can all continue to provide the food supply.”
As for demand, it’s strong for small-sized oranges, and due to the gap between the California and Texas grapefruit markets, looks to be strong as well for Texas grapefruit. “Citrus gained a considerable boost as a result of the pandemic and we have noticed sustained consumer demand as the efforts to increase vitamin C consumption continue,” says Flowers. That’s going to leave pricing similar to last year, beginning with a strong market on grapefruit.
Looking ahead, there is already optimism for the 2024-2025 Texas citrus season. “It should be an outstanding year as our post-freeze plantings come into production and give our yield a significant boost,” says Flowers.
For more information:
April Flowers
Lone Star Citrus Growers
Tel: +1 (956) 424-7775
aprilf@lonestarcitrus.com
www.lonestarcitrus.com