Indian River citrus growers say they have produced a sizable crop of grapefruit for the first time since the 2004-2005 hurricane season, largely due to Tropical Storm Fay.

Doug Bournique, executive vice president of the Indian River Citrus League, said that the rains of Fay that swept through the region in late August brought the moisture needed to round out this year's crop that is estimated to produce 23 million boxes of fruit this year � a $200 million harvest.

Crop averages prior to the 2004-2005 hurricane season were at 28 million boxes, but only 4 million boxes were produced in 2005, Bournique said.

Indian River grapefruit is shipped to 24 countries, he said.

While Fay's rains were a blessing for the 1000 growers over the six counties represented by the league, the winds were not, said Tim Gaver, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension citrus agent in Fort Pierce.

"The harvest is in a slight increase, but we have lost a lot of trees with the canker problem," Gaver said. "Tropical Storm Faye resulted in blowing the canker throughout a lot of the area, and that has created a marketing problem for us."

But crop production in the 25-million box range may be increasingly difficult to attain in years to come, Bournique said, because of the urbanization of groves throughout Central Florida, but he is still happy with the quality of the 2008 growing season.

"The tropical storm came by and dropped 15 inches of rain on the east coast, and that really sized our fruit up nicely," Bournique said. "So, because of a combination of growing conditions . . . the brix (the industry sweetness scale) is higher than previous years. So we're seeing good internal eating quality."

Good quality fruit with a healthy crop is causing the league to boast.

"We haven't been able to pound our chests until now when we can finally come out and say we got one," he said. "You don't realize how long it's been that we've been snake bit with storms and issues. So this year is one of the first years in five that we've been able to come out and say look we have a great piece of grapefruit."