Evaluation of Washington Navel Orange Economic Indicators

Abstract

In Egypt, oranges are the most important citrus crops for local consumption or export. It represents approximately 72.2% of the total Egyptian citrus production in 2019/2020. The main cultivated variety of orange is the Washington navel orange and it is more popular because of its delicious taste, nutrition, and its seedless besides being rich in vitamin C. Washington navel orange is susceptible to fruit cracking, and it is a common physiological disorder that takes place during fruit development. This work aims to investigate the negative effect of fruit cracking in reducing the yield and quality of Washington navel orange produced in Egypt by studying major economic indicators and estimating an economical evaluation of using treatment of Washington navel orange during the period time of 2007/2008 until 2019/2020. Results showed that fruit areas and production of Washington navel orange represented about 52.9% and 53.2% of fruit areas and production of orange during the study period. However, the yield was unstable with a significant annual growth rate of about 1.1%. Also, the last mentioned treatment achieved a high price for farmers by about 5.1% and total revenue of about 3.2% during the study period. Nowadays, Egypt has become the largest exporter of oranges in the world within the last year and the achieved earnings reached $661 million in 2019/2020. In addition, results showed that evaluation of using a treatment to reduce the rate of Washington navel orange cracking was economical to be applied.