Experts predict a 15 percent decline in Costa Rica’s marketing year 2023/24 orange crop, driving production down to 250,000 metric tons on suboptimal precipitation – associated with an El Niño weather system – during the critical fruit development period in 2023. Higher international orange juice prices in 2023 bolstered growers’ efforts to manage the effects of citrus greening in the face of continued high production costs.
The United States remained the primary destination for Costa Rican concentrated orange juice exports in marketing year 2022/23, despite continued growth pushing China’s volumetric share of Costa Rican exports above 30 percent.
Commercial orange production is concentrated in the northern part of Alajuela province (around Los Chiles, Guatuso, and Upala) and in the northern part of Guanacaste province (near the border with Nicaragua in an area known as Santa Cecilia).
Source - https://www.freshplaza.com
