WAUCHULA, Fla. \u2013\u00a0Growers gathered at two industry events Friday expressed pleasure and optimism with the crop numbers projected for the 2014-15 Florida Citrus season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Released at noon by the the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Department of Agriculture<\/a>, the season\u2019s first citrus crop\u00a0forecast<\/a>\u00a0estimated 108 million boxes of Florida Oranges, a modest increase over the previous\u00a0season. The forecast called for a slight decline in Florida Grapefruit, with\u00a015 million boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis gives everybody \u2013 the processors, growers and suppliers \u2013 some optimism for the year,\u201d said\u00a0Ben Hill Griffin III<\/a>, a grower and processor based in Frostproof, Fla. \u201cThis is a big industry and the more volume we have, the better it is for the industry as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the season continues, the initial crop forecast is adjusted to reflect the reality of the season. In previous years, that has meant significantly reduced numbers\u00a0by year end. However, many in the industry are hopeful the numbers will remain strong thanks to a modification the USDA\u00a0made to\u00a0its calculations this year to better account for the amount of premature fruit\u00a0drop experienced in previous seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the coming months, we will obviously keep a close eye on fruit drop, which has been significant and unpredictable, and, of course,\u00a0on the weather,\u201d said Marisa Zansler, director of economic and market research at the Florida Department of Citrus, in a\u00a0statement released Friday<\/a>. \u201cIn the meantime, orange juice remains America\u2019s favorite fruit juice by a wide margin. Today\u2019s numbers give us reason to expect that status to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Industry members shared reactions to\u00a0the forecast Friday at events held in Wauchula\u00a0and Arcadia\u00a0by\u00a0Florida Citrus Mutual<\/a>,\u00a0Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association<\/a>,\u00a0Joe L. Davis Inc. Realtors<\/a>,\u00a0Desoto Insurance<\/a>, Morgan Stanley-Dick Johnson and\u00a0Everglades Farm Equipment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think it\u2019s about right,\u201d said Bobby Mixon, of Sunny South Packing Company in Hardee and Desoto counties. \u201cThe growers are finding a lot of ways to treat greening and canker so I think the numbers are going to be up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though expected to make a slight decline, grapefruit growers remain positive, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is great news, it proves grapefruit production has stabilized,\u201d said Larry Black, of Peace River Packing Company in Ft. Meade. \u201cAnd that is due to the aggressive efforts of our growers to care for their trees. Nutrition programs and new plantings have allowed this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Friday\u2019s forecast provided much-welcomed encouragement, the industry remains focused on providing consumers with the best possible product, said\u00a0Doug Ackerman, executive director of the FDOC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe still have a lot of work to do, but we know that the Florida Citrus industry has always prevailed through difficult times, because of the innovation and hard work our growers bring to the groves every single day,\u201d Ackerman said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growers and processors are hopeful numbers will remain steady through the year. WAUCHULA, Fla. \u2013\u00a0Growers gathered at two industry events Friday expressed pleasure and optimism with the crop numbers projected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":613,"template":"","fdoc_news_item_category":[105],"fdoc_citrus_type":[],"fdoc_health_category":[],"class_list":["post-4143","fdoc-news-item","type-fdoc-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fdoc_news_item_category-crop-forecasts"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item\/4143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc-news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fdoc-news-item"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fdoc_news_item_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_news_item_category?post=4143"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_citrus_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_citrus_type?post=4143"},{"taxonomy":"fdoc_health_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.floridacitrus.org\/grower\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fdoc_health_category?post=4143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}