GrapefruitThe Texas grapefruit and orange harvest is underway with industry expectations of 2.5 million 40-pound cartons of grapefruit, 1 million cartons of early oranges and 500,000 cartons of late oranges. This is similar to last year’s volume of 2.317 million cartons of grapefruit and 1.67 million cartons of oranges.

President of Texas Citrus Mutual Dale Murden said the condition of the fruit appears strong. Cool weather is expected to sweeten the fruit as the harvest progresses.

Texas growers are confronted with a water shortage, but it will not affect this year’s crop. It has caused growers to back off planting fall onions, which can potentially affect spring crops. The U.S. sides of the Falcon and Amistad reservoirs on the Rio Grande are not receiving water promised from Mexico under the terms of a 1944 treaty. Mexico has fallen behind and needs to deliver more than 1.3 million acre-feet by October 2025.

The Texas harvest is anticipated to run through April.

Read more about the Texas citrus crop here.