Florida Orange Crop Plunges to 71-Year Low After Hurricane Irma
- U.S. Department of Agriculture makes first post-storm forecast
- Orange-juice prices fall as projection beats some estimates
Florida Orange Crop Seen Plunging to 71-Year Low
This article is for subscribers only.
Florida’s orange production will plunge 21 percent to a 71-year low after damage wrought by Hurricane Irma devastated the harvest, while output of cotton also suffered in storm-hit areas, government figures showed.
Orange growers in Florida, the largest U.S. producer, will harvest 54 million boxes in the 2017-18 marketing year, the least since 1947 -- an era when citrus irrigation was rare -- the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report Thursday. A survey of analysts conducted by Bloomberg indicated a crop of 58.2 million boxes. A box weighs 90 pounds, or 41 kilograms.