While overall production was down for U.S. citrus farmers, value increased by 7% to $3.39 billion, according to the recently released 2013-2014 Florida Citrus Statistics from the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service.
Driving the value up was tangerine value, rising 27%. Lemons were also up 62%. Tangelo value had the largest decrease in value to 24% while grapefruit value declined 10% and orange value decreased 5%.
Total citrus used for production in the U.S dropped 15% to 9.4 million tons. Total utilized citrus production was down in all citrus reporting states except Arizona, which was unchanged. Florida accounted for 59% of total citrus production, followed by California at 37% and Texas and Arizona combining to produce the remaining 4%.
Florida’s $946 million preliminary on-tree value of the 2013-2014 citrus crop was 19% less than the revised value of $1.16 billion for 2012-2013. Florida’s share of U.S. citrus production was 124.0 million boxes, declining 21% from the previous season’s 156.2 million boxes. The state’s all orange production decreased by 22% to 104.6 million boxes. Grapefruit production dropped 15% to 15.7 million boxes with tangerines and tangelo production dropping 12%.
The final frozen concentrated orange juice yield was 1.56 gal. per box of 42 degree Brix concentrate, according to the Florida Department of Citrus. The early-midseason portion of the crop finalized at 1.52 gal. per box while the late crop yielded 1.64 gal. per box. The final yield for frozen concentrated grapefruit juice was 1.21 gal. per box of 40 degree Brix concentrate, down from the previous year’s 1.22 gal. per box.