Rains may favor orange blossoming

Orange growers from São Paulo expect the rains observed in the state in January to favor a new blossoming in the upcoming weeks, as trees of some orchards were budding. In mid-January, growers from eastern SP already observed new blossoming, which may originate the 2018/19 pear oranges out of the desirable period. Moreover, in the current developmental stage of the plants, rains also favor the settling of second or third blossoming, observed in some orchards in São Paulo between October and December.

On the other hand, humidity concerns citrus growers regarding diseases, such as “estrelinha” (blossom-end-rot), which may hit open flowers. Therefore, producers adopted preventive measures to avoid new losses. Besides high moisture, another aspect that may limit the 2018/19 crop volume is the larger production in the current season (2017/18), which reduced the plant vigor last year. The 2017/18 season is almost 57 % higher than the previous one.

PRICES – The availability of high quality oranges was limited in São Paulo State in January, increasing the supply of low quality fruits and pressing down quotes. Moreover, rains lowered the demand for citrus fruits in that period. In January, pear orange quotes averaged 20.00 BRL per 40.8-kilo box, on tree, 46.7 % lower than in January/17, but still 0.3 % higher than in December/17. As for tahiti lime, high supply and the weak pace of trades (domestic and international) pressed down values last month. On the other hand, demand was heated, due to the big size of the fruits and the intensification of crushing. In January, tahiti lime quotes averaged 20.50 BRL per 27-kilo box, harvested, 50.1 % down compared to that in December/17.