Oranges, mandarins, tangelos, lemons, and grapefruit continued to be packed for domestic and foreign markets. Navel orange, Cara Cara, Moro Blood, and Minneola Tangelo exports continued to increase. Midmonth saw orange trees being topped in advance of the bloom. Seedless Mandarins and Murcotts were covered with netting to prevent cross pollination.
CA Valencia production forecast
The California Valencia orange forecast is 10.0 million boxes (400,000 tons), unchanged from previous forecast, but down 9 percent from the previous season. This results in a California all orange forecast of 50.0 million boxes (2.00 million tons), unchanged from the January forecast. Objective survey measurements taken during January and February indicated that fruit set per tree was lower than the previous year and the lowest since 2009, but the measured average fruit size was slightly larger than the previous year.
Florida: cold snap caused minimal damage
Producers across the citrus growing region reported high temperatures ranging from the 70s to 80s, while minimum temperatures were in the low 40s and upper 30s. A cold snap during the third week of March brought temperatures below freezing in practically the complete citrus growing region. Temperatures below 30 degrees were sustained for less than two hours in nearly all places, causing minimal negative effects to citrus trees and fruit. Rainfall amounts were well above average in the Central and Northern areas of the citrus growing region with several counties receiving more than four inches of rainfall. Most of the Indian River District and Southern area counties received far less rainfall. As per the U.S. Drought Monitor, last updated February 24, 2015, abnormally dry conditions were present in Collier County, parts of Hendry County, and in the lower half of the Indian River District.
Processing plants were up and running at full capacity the first two weeks of the month, taking both eliminations and field run fruit. Several plants finished early and midseason oranges during the second half of the month and transitioned to grapefruit or began setting up to run Valencia oranges. Early variety fruit harvested for the fresh market included primarily Honey tangerines and colored grapefruit. A small amount of tangelos, white grapefruit, and early and midseason oranges also went fresh.
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