Sometimes there's nothing better than a cold glass of orange juice to start your morning, especially in the summer. But juice lovers can say goodbye to breakfast as they know it.
In recent months, Brazil, the largest exporter of orange juice in the world, has experienced a bacterial infection of citrus plants known as “greening”.
So far, there is no cure for citrus greening once it has affected a plant.
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Coupled with extreme heat and unfavorable climatic conditions, the Brazilian orange market is expected to reach its lowest production levels in 2024 and 2025.
According to Reutersciting data from research firm Fundecitrus, Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais (Brazil's main orange-producing areas) are expected to produce only about 232 million 40kg boxes of oranges – a 24.36% drop from a year ago, and the lowest production level since the 1988-1989 crop year.
Florida, the largest producer of orange juice in the US, is also facing production problems due to greening and adverse weather conditions.
As a result, orange juice prices have risen and producers have moved away from producing pure orange juice, looking to other fruits to help offset the low supply.
“A lot of (manufacturers) will change the amount of juice they're putting in their mixes to take out the orange juice and increase other juices, like pear juice, apple juice, grape juice, so they're more slightly addicted to orange juice.” Harry Campbell, a commodity market data analyst at research group Mintec said CNBC. “Until the point is reached where consumers are no longer willing to pay a premium for orange juice because it is in such low supply, prices will continue to rise.”
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On Wednesday, the benchmark froze orange juice concentrate futures closed in $4.77 per pound – a record high.
According to statesmanThe average price of orange juice in the US in December 2023 was $3.72, up from $2.34 at the same time in 2019.