While greater amounts of rain were welcome in California citrus-growing regions in the past year, the downside has been exterior fruit damage caused by increased thrip populations, says Casey Creamer, president and CEO of California Citrus Mutual.
Exterior scarring of fruit caused by thrips is one of the narratives of this 2023-24 citrus crop, Creamer said. Thrip populations have increased, especially in areas with heavier rains, he said.
“It hasn’t been this bad, ever,” he said. “It was really uncontrollable in some areas.”
That is expected to result in lost fresh citrus volume, especially in navels, he said.
In general, the 2023-24 navel crop in California is comparable to last season. For navels, the crop estimate for navels was put at 74 million cartons for 2023-24, up slightly from 73 million cartons last season.
However, that estimate does not account for fruit lost because of thrip damage, Creamer said.
Because of thrip damage, there will be a decrease in the utilized production from 15% to 8% of the overall navel crop, Creamer said. Of the fruit that will be utilized, there will be increased volumes of Choice-grade navels and lighter-than-normal volumes of higher-grade Fancy navels.
That likely will translate to higher prices for Fancy fruit, Creamer said.
“We will have less volume of navels if you [account] for what we won’t put in the marketplace because of thrips damage,” he said.
Mandarin output in 2023-24 could be down about 10%, and lemons could be down about that same amount, Creamer said.
Mandarins now are the second-biggest citrus variety in the state, behind navel oranges.
“Mandarins are still a growing commodity, but I feel like it is slowing down just a little bit,” he said.
Counting the damage
In the blocks that were most damaged by thrips, fruit will exit the marketplace and not be utilized, Creamer said.
Growers are concerned about their returns this season, he said, and industry leaders are seeking out paths to disaster assistance for growers.
California Citrus Mutual is asking the USDA to purchase lower-grade Choice citrus fruit for its feeding programs.
“We think the best way to deal with the situation is to avoid as much of the disaster as possible by helping to support the market,” Creamer said.
Another storyline for the 2023-24 season is an expanding Huanglongbing, or HLB, quarantine region, Creamer said.
In early October, the California Department of Food and Agriculture declared a quarantine in Ventura County following the detection of HLB, also known as citrus greening, in two citrus trees on one residential property in the city of Santa Paula. These detections are the first HLB-positive trees in Ventura County.
CDFA crews will be working to remove and dispose of the infected trees and are conducting a mandatory survey of every property within 250 meters of the detection site, the agency said. After the survey is complete, all host plants in the 250-meter area around the detection site will be treated to suppress the disease carriers, insects called Asian citrus psyllids.
These detections established a mandatory 5-mile citrus HLB quarantine area around the find site, according to the CDFA.
While HLB was found in a residential region, Creamer said it does impact a significant amount of commercial citrus production.
“Growers are trying to figure out how to work through the quarantine rules and remain profitable,” he said.
Growers in a quarantine region must put in place at least one mitigation measure to prevent the spread of the HLB, and a second mitigation measure is required if the fruit is moved to a packing house in the quarantine region. Typically, growers must apply a pesticide to the fruit to rid the fruit of Asian citrus psyllids.
Lemon production is strong in Ventura County’s quarantine region, and lemon growers have seen depressed prices for three years, Creamer said.
“There are a lot of growers making some very difficult decisions and a lot of uncertainty in that region,” he said.
Creamer said California Citrus Mutual will work to control the spread of the diseases and make quarantine rules as practical and workable as possible.
Export markets
While California citrus shippers have typically moved about 30% of their fruit to export markets, Creamer said that percentage dipped to perhaps 15% last season.
With the challenges from the beginning of the China trade war to the COVID-19 pandemic to transportation challenges, Creamer said growers haven’t been able to access as much of the export market as they would have liked.
