USDA ERS Fruit Yearbook

Find the USDA ERS Fruit and Tree Nut Yearbook, released today, here.

From the report:

Bearing acreage dropped 7 percent for citrus and almost 1 percent for major noncitrus crops between 2005 and 2006, but increased 2 percent for miscellaneous noncitrus crops and 1 percent for tree nuts. Bearing acreage declined for all major citrus fruit, mostly led by the loss of acreage in Florida.

Orange acreage fell in both Florida and California. California growers are removing Valencia orange trees due to weak demand for the fruit. Most of the grapefruit acreage loss occurred in Florida, with California and Arizona acreage declining slightly. Grapefruit bearing acreage has remained constant in Texas since 2002/03 at 18,500 acres. Lemon acreage declined by 1,000 acres in Arizona, but California’s acreage remaining unchanged between 2005 and 2006 at 44,000 acres, and accounted for 77 percent of the total. The 5-percent decline in total tangerine acreage was a result of fewer acres in Florida, even though California continues to plant more acres of different tangerine varieties that are showing strong popularity among American consumers. These varieties, such as clementines, are at present still mostly imported.Among noncitrus fruit crops, bearing acreage fell between 2005 and 2006 for apples, peaches, pears, tart cherries, plums/prunes, apricots, figs, Hawaiian pineapples, and kiwifruit. Some of the decline was offset by increased bearing acreage of sweet cherries, avocados, bananas, dates, and Hawaiian papaya. The number of bearing acres remained relatively unchanged for grapes, nectarines, and cranberries. Total fruit production declined 4 percent in 2006 from 2005, totaling 30.2 million tons, the smallest quantity produced since 1991 While citrus production was up 1 percent in 2006, it was still low relative to recent years, as Florida’s trees still felt the effects of the hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 and diseases, such as citrus canker and citrus
greening, continued to hinder Florida’s production. Noncitrus production fell 8 percent in 2006 from 2005, with 16.9 million tons produced. Smaller peach, grape, tart cherry, apricot, fig, Hawaiian pineapple, avocado, nectarine, kiwifruit, and papaya crops contributed to the decline in noncitrus production.Tree nut production increased 9 percent between 2005 and 2006 to 1.6 million tons (in-shell basis).