The tangerine harvest was winding down with export and domestic quality good to fair. Eating quality and flavor has been good to excellent. Some scar, sunburn, and picking injuries were reported. The 1997-98 California Navel orange forecast is 88.0 million cartons, unchanged from January and up 10 percent from last season. Harvest of the Navel crop is approximately 70 percent complete.
Good quality is reported with large sized fruit.
Rind breakdown, puff, and crease are concerns to growers. The April Valencia orange forecast is 60.0 million cartons, unchanged from January and up 25 percent from last year. Picking of Valencia oranges, mainly for export, is active throughout the State. Volume picked is less than 5 percent of the total crop, but early reports indicate good to excellent quality. The 1997-98 California all grapefruit production is forecast at 18.0 million cartons.