Late Rains Keep Growers in Florida From Harvesting Full Orange Crop

Florida’s orange crop, already pegged as the smallest in 13 years, may be even smaller as damage by late-season rains kept growers from harvesting all their fruit, analysts said Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture next week may estimate the crop at 150 million boxes, down from 151.2 million in June, according to the median estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Orange juice futures in New York rallied to a six-year high Thursday on concern hurricanes would damage the new crop starting in October.

Wet weather is “widespread” across Florida’s citrus belt, with growers around Tampa getting over 6 inches of rain last week, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said. PepsiCo Inc.’s Tropicana Products Inc., which buys one of every four oranges grown in the state, stopped taking deliveries for the season Wednesday and planned to finish processing fruit today, spokesman Pete Brace said.

“If there’s any picking going on, there’s not much of it anywhere,” said Kevin Sharpe, a broker at Basic Commodities Inc. in Winter Park, Fla.

Florida’s orange harvest, the second-biggest in the world behind Brazil’s, usually runs from October into June.

A drop in the estimate was signaled in a government report on usage of Florida’s orange crop. According to the USDA’s Citrus Administrative Committee, which regulates fruit shipped out of Florida, the orange crop was overestimated by 2.4 million boxes as of July 4.

“We’ve been having a lot of rain, almost every day, and it could have impeded the harvest,” said Duke Chadwell, the manager of the Lakeland, Fla.-based committee. With Tropicana closed, “if there’s no processing going on, there’s no outlet for your fruit,” he said.

Orange juice futures have climbed 57% in the last year amid damage to Florida citrus groves from three hurricanes in August and September.

Meanwhile, residents of South Florida began bracing for their first hurricane of the season as a strengthening Dennis moved on a path toward the Florida Keys.

A crop of 150 million boxes would be the smallest since 139.8 million boxes were harvested in the 1991-92 season, and 38% smaller than last season’s production of 242 million boxes. The USDA valued that crop at $1.08 billion.