Most of Florida citrus escaped freeze damage: report

Icicles hang from an orange tree after it was sprayed with water throughout the night in Plant City, Florida January 6, 2010.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Most of Florida's citrus crop escaped damage from freezing temperatures this week, but growers are bracing for a renewed freeze threat this weekend, the state's main citrus growers group said on Thursday.

With about 25 percent of the current citrus harvest in, "some damage" had been reported to trees' fruit, twigs and leaves, but this was not judged catastrophic for Florida's $9.3 billion citrus industry, Florida Citrus Mutual said.

"The bulk of the crop has been spared," the group's spokesman, Andrew Meadows, told Reuters, although he said it was too early to be able to give specific estimates and reports from the field were still coming in.

Florida's citrus industry produces more than three-quarters of the U.S. orange crop, and accounts for about 40 percent of the world's orange juice supply.

Weather forecasters are predicting another pocket of arctic air moving into the southern United States at the weekend and Florida growers are worried about the possibility of a renewed freeze damage threat over the nights of Saturday and Sunday.

"We are going to be on alert," Meadows said.

Citrus growers in the state have been running irrigation and taking other measures to protect their trees against the freeze, and all this imposed additional fuel and labor costs for producers, Meadows added.

(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)