US (FL): Navel orange volume expected to be slightly down

“Volume for navels will be down, mostly because the tree count is down,” said Kelly Marinaro, owner of Sunny Fresh Citrus in Vero Beach, Florida. He predicted that, at the current pace of production, availability of navels should continue through the end of the year. He explained that the current situation with fewer trees is a result of tough economic decisions growers have to make.

“It's so expensive to re-tree these groves,” said Marinaro. “It's hard for people to take the shot to put trees in the ground before they get any money for them.” Fewer plantings have, naturally, accounted for the dip in production this year.

Though internal quality of fruit has been good, wind scarring has affected some fruit. Despite that, however, coloring on navels has been excellent with cooler weather helping more fruit achieve good color with minimal ethylene gas needed.

Good demand has kept prices up, and at the current clip, Marinaro predicted that supplies should last throughout the holiday season and into the end of the year.

“Prices are holding pretty decent, considering we usually see a drop around this time of year,” said Marinaro. “Growers can do alright with this pricing. Our order book is pretty full for the next couple of weeks.”