California’s orange crop is expected to fall...

California’s orange crop is expected to fall 11% short of last year’s, when 58.5 million boxes were marketed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast that 52 million boxes will be sent to market this crop year, split 28 million-24 million between winter-spring navels and summer-fall Valencias. Meanwhile in Florida, the 1987-88 crop will fill 130 million boxes, up 9% over last season. That marks a rebound from the two previous seasons and the freeze-damaged 1984-85 season when only 103.9 million boxes went to market. Most of Florida’s crop is used to produce juice, while most of California’s is sold fresh.