Louis Dreyfus Commodities, a division of Louis Dreyfus Holdings BV released its estimates for next year’s orange crop at 132 million 90 pound boxes. This would be the smallest harvest since 2007 and represents a 1% decline from this year. Louis Dreyfus buys oranges from farmers and processes the fruit into juice to be sold to suppliers and retailers and releases crop estimates as a courtesy to their suppliers. A second citrus industry expert, Elizabeth Steger released an even lower estimate for next year at 130 million boxes. The fall in production is due to a combination of disease, the conversion of groves to real estate developments and storm damage in the 2000’s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s orange crop estimate for next year will be released on October 11th.
To receive relevant news stories with summaries provided by GAI Research & Insight, subscribe to Global AgDevelopments, our free bi-weekly enhanced eNews service