Texas citrus looks to be on the rebound following the freeze in February 2021. “We are very excited for the 2022-2023 Texas citrus season. Our trees are recovering well with crop volume recovered to about 65 percent. So our shipments will be closer to a typical season with more room to recover next year,” says April Flowers of Lone Star Citrus.
This season’s crop is a bump from last year where Lone Star saw approximately 20 percent of a normal crop year. The season did start a few weeks late and is expected to go through early April.
As for citrus notes, larger grapefruit will be harder to come by with peaking on 48s while on oranges, there will be mostly smaller sizes this year on account of the drought in Texas. “While the drought has been a challenge, hot and dry summers always help with pest control. Additionally, the reinstatement of maturity standards will once again ensure a consistent, quality product on store shelves,” says Flowers.
Left to right: T.J. Flowers VP of operations and sales, April Flowers, Congresswoman Mayra Flores and Congressman G.T. Thompson.
Drought update
Drought is a pressing issue in Texas. For Lone Star, its local water supply comes from man-made reservoirs fed by the Rio Grande River and these water sources have seen historic lows over the past two years. “This led to the water master enacting conservation measures in mid-August, specifically instituting negative allocations for agriculture and water restrictions for the municipalities,” said Flowers.
That said, September and October are historically rainy months and while there wasn’t much rain in Hidalgo and Cameron counties, the west Texas water shed did receive appreciable amounts, helping to restore Lake Amistad by about 20 feet. “Amistad continues to rise a couple of inches a day which is very encouraging. While Falcon Lake remains very low, we have more water now than we did at this time in 2020, allowing negative allocations to be replaced last Wednesday. We certainly need more rain. But Lake Amistad is at about 46 percent capacity, which has moved us out of the danger zone for now,” she says.
To manage the situation, Lone Star Citrus has been using water conservation methods for years including bed covers, drip irrigation and technology like AquaSpy to monitor the efficacy of watering schedules.
This season from Texas, larger grapefruit will be harder to come by with peaking on 48s.
Filling the gap
Meanwhile, from a demand perspective for Texas citrus, the season is also starting out strong. “We are just beginning and we have a strong market due to a gap in available supplies. California grapefruit finished early and the hurricane in Florida has driven prices higher,” says Flowers. She notes it will start with all of its major retailers over the next two weeks as it builds volume, aiming to be at peak operations by mid-November.
This follows some upgrades that Lone Star implemented in its operations in the off-season. “This includes upgrading our sizer/grader/color sorter to the most current, state-of-the-art Aweta technology, as well as fully refrigerating our entire packing shed, which will help protect against spoilage, wax shatter and improve shelf life,” says Flowers. “I must say that the last three years have provided every manner of challenges including a pandemic, a hurricane, a freeze and now a drought. However, this has only highlighted the resilience of the Texas citrus grower and the incredible team we have at LSCG. We are very fortunate to have dedicated and talented people working with us as we grow into the future.”
For more information:
April Flowers
Lone Star Citrus Growers
Tel: +1 (956) 424-7775
aprilf@lonestarcitrus.com
www.lonestarcitrus.com