The California citrus industry battled a weeklong onslaught of freezing weather in mid-January, which may have affected navel crop appearance and damaged W Murcott yields.
“The weather had been almost ideal for navels until we had this recent freeze,” Tom Wollenman of LoBue Brothers told Fruitnet. “There will likely be some epidermal scarring from ice, which may have some ramifications on export-quality fruit down the road."
The USDA continues to hold to its original estimate of a 93m (40lb) carton crop for the 2012/13 California navel season, with 90m cartons coming from the state’s Central Valley.
“If this freeze had happened 30 days earlier, in mid-December, there’s little doubt that there would have been significant damage to the navels,” Wollenman said.
“The eating quality for navels is much better this year at this point in the season.”
Fortunately for the California citrus industry, the majority of the clementine crop had been picked by mid-January’s freeze. It remains to be seen the extent of the damage to the later-maturing W Murcotts, however.
“The Murcotts no doubt sustained some damage,” Wollenman told Fruitnet. “To what extent, we won’t know until later in the season.”
The USDA had estimated an increase in the California mandarin crop by roughly 8 per cent, to approximately 23.6m (40lb) cartons for the 2012/13 season.
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