California orange crop fails to measure up to 2016
“The trees got tired,” said Joel Nelsen, president of the California Citrus Mutual, which represents about 2,500 growers. “We’re significantly down this year.”
Last season’s California navel orange harvest totaled more than 94 million cartons, about 3.76 billion pounds. This season, the growers expect 84 million cartons – a 400 million-pound drop.
California supplies around 80% of the countries fresh oranges, lemons and other citrus fruit according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even with the decline though, Nelsen is confident that they can meet demand.
“Last year, we had such a huge crop, the trees needed to take a break,” said Nelsen, adding that such cycles are normal for citrus. “But there’s still plenty of fruit to go around. Fresh California oranges will be available well into June.”
source: sacbee.com
