The U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its orange crop forecast for the 2011-2012 season 2 percent Wednesday, estimating Florida will now produce
150 million boxes. The USDA’s initial October estimate pegged the orange crop at 147 million boxes.

“So far, this season has progressed as we expected,” said Michael W. Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “This increase wasn’t altogether unexpected and we are still comfortable with the USDA’s production estimates and the size of the crop.”