Orange crop grows again in SP and MG after two bad years

The 2022/23 orange crop will resume growth after two years with low yields in the citrus belt formed by the interior of São Paulo and the Triângulo Mineiro. This is what Fundecitrus (Citriculture Defense Fund) points out, which announced its annual forecast this Thursday (26) in Araraquara (273 km from São Paulo).

Fundecitrus forecast for the next harvest is 316.95 million boxes (40.8 kg each), 20.53% more than the previous harvest, which reached 262.97 million boxes of the fruit.

The intense heat, lack of rain and the occurrence of frost resulted in smaller oranges and fruit drop in the orchards in the last two harvests, after an overproduction with 386.8 million boxes in the 2019/20 season.

Fundecitrus’ assessment is that the orchards managed to recover from the climatic adversities faced in the last two years and the harvest will bear greater fruit. Consequently, orchards will have better yield of boxes per hectare.

“It was to be expected an even bigger harvest, even due to the biannual nature of the crop, but as we came from a situation in which the orange trees suffered a lot from drought and frost, the plant reserves were below normal”, said Juliano Ayres, manager -general of Fundecitrus.

The average weight of the oranges should be 158 grams, 10.49% higher than that recorded in the previous harvest — lower, however, than the average of the last seven years.

The average productivity is estimated at 920 boxes per hectare, compared to 760 boxes in the 2021/22 harvest, with 1.86 boxes per tree, surpassing the mark of 1.58 boxes per orange tree from the previous harvest.

Fundecitrus estimates that there are 169.97 million trees in production, 3.41 million more than last year, despite the area having reduced by 0.50%. This means that there is a greater density of plants in the orchards.