Growers report weather perfect for size, sweetness

By TIM HEARDEN

Capital Press

With this season going as well as it has, some orange growers in California's Central Valley may wish it would never end.

And for many, it hasn't yet.

The picking and shipping of navels usually wrap up around the first of July, but this year, some growers are still moving fruit -- and may be through the end of the month, said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter.

"We had more fruit out there than we really thought," Nelsen said. "A couple of large growers will be moving fruit until the end of July, which, candidly in my 28 years, is unheard of.

"The fruit is holding well, it has good flavor still and that's the reason ... why we believe this season is going to be very positive when all the numbers are added up," he said.

Officials at Citrus Mutual have been predicting for weeks that this year could turn out to be among the best ever for California navels, as utility rates have hovered at about an 85 percent level.

At the start of the season, the National Agricultural Statistics Service projected that 80 million cartons would be produced during 2009-2010, a significant improvement over last season's 64 million cartons. A carton weighs 37.5 pounds.

Growers knew they were in for a good season last fall when government maturity inspectors finished their work by late November because they'd found that the fruit was already at an optimum flavor, Nelsen said.

Consumers responded to the abundance of big and sweet oranges, too, as the normally lucrative Christmas season was followed by brisk sales in January, Nelsen said.

"If you give them good fruit, they're going to continue to buy it," he said.

On top of that, the cool spring helped navels stay on the tree a little longer, he said.

The strong navel crop is helping growers make up for a lack of success with valencias, whose tonnage in California has dropped by more than 50 percent over the past five years, Nelsen said.

With stiff offshore competition depleting the market for valencias, growers have pulled out valencia acreage and replaced it with late navels and mandarins, he said.

"Our overall citrus acreage remains constant," he said. "I think that speaks well of the industry ... I think what we're going to end up seeing for our industry is our top three commodities will be navels, mandarins and lemons, and underneath that the valencia orange, grapefruit, blood oranges and some of these other varieties of citrus."

Online

California Citrus Mutual: www.cacitrusmutual.com