USDA Upgrades Slightly Florida Oranges Forecast

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The federal government has upgraded slightly its forecast for Florida's orange harvest.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture now expects the state to produce 168.5 million boxes of oranges, each of which weighs 90 pounds.

That would be a 30 percent improvement over last year, when the state produced 129 million boxes.

The government will revisit its forecast three more times before this year's harvest is finished. But the April forecast has typically been accurate. Over the past 10 seasons that didn't have hurricanes, it has deviated from final totals by an average of about 1.5 percent.

Florida grows the vast majority of oranges processed into juice in the United States. Crop disease and hurricanes in recent years have cut production, sending grocery store prices to historic highs.