In this week's ‘In Charts' installment, Cristian Crespo of data visualization tool Agronometrics illustrates how the U.S. market is evolving. Each week the article will look at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic to see what factors are driving change.

Having been affected by diseases and hurricanes, Florida’s citrus production is currently less than a third of what it was a decade ago. For many years Florida was the leading citrus producer in the U.S. However, now California holds that title.

The chart below shows Florida’s decline over the last several years, with the state dropping almost 100 million boxes since 2010. Over the same period, Chile has seen significant growth with its orange volumes in the U.S. market.

Since 2017, volumes of fresh oranges from both regions have been similar.

Historic annual volumes (KG) of Chilean and Floridian oranges in the U.S. market

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Despite the slight recovery in 2018, the start of the 2019 fresh orange season in Florida saw a lighter crop. In fact, its volume was lower than in the last five years, as can be seen below.

Monthly volumes of oranges from Florida in the U.S.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

In 2018, shipments of Chilean oranges in the U.S. market were the highest since 2010. The country’s current season is now getting into full swing.

Historic monthly Chilean orange volumes in the U.S. market

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Despite the lower volumes received by the U.S. market at the start of the year, prices have remained stable or on a slight downward trend relative to previous years, as can be seen in the chart below.

Historic monthly prices of oranges in the U.S market (USD/KG)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. (Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

We will be following how the orange market behaves, especially with Chile’s supplies over the coming months. According to Juan Enrique Ortúzar, president of the Chilean Citrus Committee, orange exports are expected to drop by around 3% year-on-year to 97,000 metric tons.

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics. This data visualization tool was built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 23 fruits we currently track.