It's a bit of a good news/bad news story on Florida Valencia oranges this season. "The greening solutions are absolutely resurrecting the internal quality and external quality of our orange crops–particularly Valencias. This year we saw the best quality in 15 years," says Noble Citrus' president Quentin Roe, a third-generation grower who is being followed by his son Adam Roe, who is the company's chief operating officer. In fact, the Brix have risen on Valencias this season by 15 percent. "This quality is what has made Florida great in the first place."
However, the freezing temperatures that the state saw at the end of January have impacted how much fresh fruit volume will be seen in Florida this year. With Valencia production underway already, there are hopes that there will be enough fruit to stretch into late May or early June. "I definitely think there's going to be a U.S. shortage in the late May-August window. It's going to get very very tight on in-store juicing oranges," says Roe, adding that sizing is mid-range this season on the fruit.
© Noble Citrus
The grower-shipper also wrapped up its tangerine crop last month early due to the Florida freeze and it finished shipping by February 15th.
Given that California is also seeing weather issues impacting its supply, it's anticipated that Florida Valencias may see a price increase this season in order to stretch volume and avoid gapping between crops.
Meanwhile, the grower-shipper also wrapped up its tangerine crop last month early due to that same freeze and it finished shipping by February 15th. "That freeze came when most of our trees were very dormant, particularly tangerine trees," says Roe. "Given we had a lot of warning that this cold was coming, we accelerated our harvest and got all of our tangerines harvested the day before the freeze."
Greening solutions paying off
Like Valencias, Florida tangerines also saw a banner year for quality with high Brix. "They had the best eating characteristics that we've seen in 15 years," says Roe. "Florida is in its comeback mode. We've got a solution to greening now and we're three years into that. The trees are really responding well and very excited about what that looks like going forward."
© Noble CitrusNoble Citrus is also looking forward to expanding the growth of Juicy Crunch into other growing regions such as Spain, South Africa, Chile and more.
Florida tangerines, particularly the company's Juicy Crunch variety but also its Autumn Honey, saw strong demand this season with steady movement throughout the season. However, pricing was similar to last year. "We had very good pricing last year. We were very concerned about the tariffs and the instability in the economy so we made a strategic decision to hold pricing, even though we experienced cost increases from labor and packaging materials," says Roe.
Meanwhile, the grower-shipper is also looking forward to expanding the growth of Juicy Crunch into other growing regions. "We should have commercial acreage going into the ground in California hopefully in another year. Spain, South Africa, Chile will all follow shortly. Egypt is in front right now with production and the fruit is amazing," says Roe.
For more information:
Quentin Roe
Noble Citrus
[email protected]
https://noblecitrus.com/
