Texas grapefruit and orange harvest has begun with industry expectations of a fresh crop for 2024-25 of 2.5 million cartons of grapefruit, 1 million cartons of early oranges and 500,000 cartons of late oranges.
With expectations of a similar volume compared with a year ago, the condition of the fruit appears strong, said Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual. While cool weather is expected to sweeten the fruit as harvest progresses, Murden said fruit quality has been great in the first few weeks of harvest.
In the 2023-24 season, USDA shipment figures indicate Texas fresh grapefruit shipments of 2.317 million 40-pound cartons and fresh orange shipments of 1.627 million 40-pound cartons.
Texas growers are facing short water conditions, but that won’t significantly affect this season’s citrus crop, Murden said.
According to a report from Texas Public Radio, the U.S. sides of the Falcon and Amistad reservoirs on the Rio Grande are not receiving water promised from Mexico under the terms of a 1944 treaty.
The treaty dictates that Mexico deliver 1,750,000 million acre-feet of water to the U.S. from six tributaries every five years, or an average of 350,000 every year. However, the Oct. 26 NPR report said Mexico has fallen behind, with a balance of more than 1.3 million acre-feet it needs to deliver by the October 2025 deadline.
“We didn’t have any hurricanes that came in and increased lake levels,” Murden said. Going into the fall, reservoir levels were the lowest in recent memory, he said. “If we don’t get any winter rains, next spring is going to be a real challenge.”
While the water shortage has caused some growers to back off planting onions this fall and perhaps other crops in the spring, Murden said the 2024-25 citrus season should be unscathed.
“The groves are in good shape right now, and I’m really optimistic about the season,” he said.
Murden said one future concern may be conditions during citrus bloom in February for the 2025-26 season.
“I’m not going to try to worry about [next year’s bloom] until it happens, and right now I’m happy that we’re off to a good start,” he said, adding that the Texas citrus harvest should be wrapped by April.
Despite challenges that have included freezes, hurricanes and drought, assurances of water deliveries could spur growers to plant more citrus in future years, Murden said.
“We’re still clawing our way back up,” he said.
Texas grapefruit harvested acreage in 2023 totaled 9,000, according to the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service. Yields of grapefruit were estimated at 250 boxes per acre, with an overall on-tree return of $20.93 per box. The value of both fresh and processed fruit was $50.5 million. Of utilized production of 90,000 tons, fresh accounted for 50,000 tons and processing uses accounted for 40,000 tons.
Texas orange harvested acreage in 2023 totaled 6,100, generating 48,000 tons of utilized production. Fresh market orange utilization was 35,000 tons, compared with just 12,000 tons for processing. The overall value of the Texas orange crop in 2023 was $14.8 million, with yields of 185 boxes per acre. The on-tree equivalent for orange prices was $11.30 per box, according to the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service.
In the 2023-24 season, per-carton prices of size 40 fancy grade Texas Rio Star grapefruit were:
- Oct. 28 — $30.75-$31.75.
- Nov. 25 — $30.75-$31.75.
- Dec. 23 — $30.75-$31.75.
- Jan. 20 — $29.75-$31.75.
- Feb. 24 — $26.75-$28.75.
- March 23 — $26.75-$28.75.
In the 2023-24 season, per-carton prices of size 72 Texas choice grade Texas navels were:
- Oct. 28 — $24.75-$28.75.
- Nov. 25 — $24.75-$28.75.
- Dec. 23 — $24.75-$28.75.
- Jan. 20 — $23.75-$25.75.
- Feb. 3 — $23.75-$25.75.
