Yesterday, I visited our local fruit stand where prices of Navels are going down. I paid $1.99 for a 10-lb bag of Navels. The Cara-Cara are only $2.99 per 10-lb bag and so I got that one too. There are still few honey tangerines at about $0.59/lb, and got about 5 lbs. There could still be navels well into July....

While I have 7 mature citrus trees in ground, obviously not enough to supply fresh fruits the entire year, excepting lemons and Calamondins.

Below is the news that explains why we are enjoying good quality crops and good prices even at this time of the year.

Joe


Source: http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=8176
VISALIA
March 20, 2008 7:09am

• Making up for 2007’s freeze disaster

• ‘It’s a huge crop’

Central Valley and Southern California citrus growers are having a good season after last year's short crop due to the big freeze in January 2007.

There is a heavy navel orange crop that is holding up well, growers say.

“In general, the fruit has held up okay. It’s a huge crop. There will be navels in the market through maybe the end of July,” says Keith Watkins, a Visalia citrus grower. “We had a very good satsuma (mandarin) crop. A big crop and good quality and good returns back to the growers.”

The California lemon crop is smaller than average, but fruit quality is excellent and consumers will still see ample supplies of California fruit, says Mr. Watkins, who is president of the Tulare County Farm Bureau.

I wish we could get citrus that cheap-- We are paying $7.50 for a 10# bag of navals and about the same for 5# of clementines. The CA navals are good this year, but the CA clementines I got (Clem King) were not that good--tart and seedy. I won't buy anymore CA clementines if I can find Spanish clementines or navals.