Brasília – Orange production in the state of São Paulo in the 2009-2010 crop reached 297.5 million 40.8 kilogram boxes. The state accounts for around 80% of total Brazilian production and counts on approximately 17,000 growers.
The latest orange crop survey was disclosed this Friday (21st) by the National Food Supply Company (Conab) and surprised growers, as there was a decline of less than 1% compared with the previous crop, whereas a decline of up to 25% was being expected.
According to the Conab, the total planted area is 608,600 hectares. According to estimates, out of the total sold, 82.7% went to the juice processing industry, and 17.3% to the raw orange market.
Early in the last quarter of last year, when the data were not consolidated yet, a decline of up to 25% in production was expected as against the 300 million boxes produced in the 2008-2009 crop due to drought and pests.
"Once the figures were consolidated, the decline proved much lower than expected. But we must check whether the industry figures are correct, because they are like a black box," said to Agência Brasil the chairman of the Citrus Culture Sectorial Chamber, Marco Antônio Santos, explaining that obtaining information from the orange juice processing companies is difficult.
The Conab informed that there are signs that the 2010-2011 crop may yield 353 million tonnes of orange. According to Santos, the expected increase in volume is due to good weather conditions at the time of flowering and low incidence of pests.
According to the Conab, the survey was conducted through a partnership established with the Secretariat of Agriculture of São Paulo, by means of the Agricultural Economics Institute (IEA, in the Portuguese acronym) and the Office for Full Technical Assistance (Cati). The data were collected through sampling. The next survey will be conducted in March.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
