alicos citrus harvest was nearly halved as the company struggled with the effect of hurricane ian which hit its groves in september the floridabased citrus producer and land management company said it could take at least two full seasons for production to recover to prehurricane levels on the first half the citrus harvest fell 45 to 22 million boxes in the six months ended march 31 the decrease was primarily due to a reduction in both the early and midseason harvest and the valencia harvest alico said the early and midseason harvest which has been completed and was down 55 in boxes harvested as compared with the prior year the valencia harvest commenced in february and as of march 31 2023 the boxes harvested was down approximately 33 compared to the same period in the prior year alico said its harvests were reduced due to the accelerated fruit drop caused by the effects of hurricane ian in addition the company experienced cost increases in fertilizer herbicide labor and fuel in maintaining its groves alico said these cost increases coupled with lower box production for both the early and midseason and the valencia harvest resulted in a higher cost of sales per box as compared to the same period in the prior year alico along with the florida citrus industry has experienced significant reductions in revenue due to having less fruit available for sale as a result of the impacts of hurricane ian president and chief executive john kiernan said the april 11 2023 usda citrus crop forecast estimates a 61 decline in the florida orange box production as compared to the prior year mr kiernan said as we enter the second half of our fiscal year with the 20222023 harvest season behind us the alico management team is focused on the caretaking of our groves and preparing them for the 20232024 harvest based upon prior experience with storms of this nature we anticipate it may take up to two full seasons or more for our groves to recover to prehurricane production levels alico has been able to navigate through the impacts of hurricane ian and unseasonably warm and dry weather over the past several months only through the investments and actions that the company has taken over the past several years alico expects market prices in the 20222023 harvest season to be consistent with the previous seasons due to low levels of inventory stocks at the juice processors and a tighter global supply for oranges alico began treating its trees with oxytetracycline on jan 16 mr kiernan said about 10 of alicos trees had been treated as of march 31 he said the extent of any benefit of the otc application will not be measurable until the completion of the fiscal year 2024 harvest although not a cure for citrus greening this otc application mitigates some of the impacts of citrus greening and has shown to decrease the rate of fruit drop and improve fruit quality