Orange price red alert

2023-08-23 08:10:00

THE FIGURE OF THE WEEK. Citrus production in Florida will experience a 60% drop this year. Two main factors are behind this decline.

PD for Le Point Oranges harvested by the Peace River Packing Company, Feb. 1, 2022, Fort Meade, Florida. © Joe Raedle/Getty Images via AFP Posted on 08/23/2023 at 08:10

Due in particular to a collapse in production in Florida, orange juice prices are breaking all-time highs in the United States. On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) benchmark market, a pound of frozen orange juice concentrate was trading at $3.20 on Tuesday, August 22, up 56% since January 1 and 89% year-on-year. .

Victims, in the fall of 2022, of the passage of hurricanes Nicole and Ian, which had destroyed more than 150,000 hectares of plantations, Florida orange trees are moreover devastated by the “yellow dragon” disease, also known as “huanglongbing”, a bacterial disease preventing fruit from ripening. The oranges remain small, green and have a bitter taste which makes them unfit for consumption. No treatment is currently available to fight against this disease.

Lower consumption

According to the latest forecast from the United States Department of Agriculture, orange production is expected to fall by 63% this year in Florida and fall to 15.85 million crates – weighing around 40 kg -, against 41 million in 2022 and 53 million in 2021. It was still 240 million only twenty years ago.

READ ALSOTomato, melon, plum… Summer fruits and vegetables are seeing their prices dropFor the United States as a whole, the orange harvest would drop this year to 61 million crates, compared to 81 million in 2022 and 103 million in 2020, which would be its lowest level since 1937. Juice consumption orange has also been falling sharply in the United States since the beginning of the century. Per year and per capita, it has more than halved, from 5.18 gallons in 2000 (1 gallon = 3.78 liters) to 2.41 gallons in 2022.

Finally, on a global scale, according to the most recent FAO data for 2019, Brazil is the largest producer of oranges (17 million tonnes), ahead of China (10.5 million tonnes) and India (9.5 million tonnes). Ranked sixth in the world, Spain is the leading producer of oranges in Europe (3.2 million tonnes), ahead of Italy (1.6 million) and Greece (0.85 million). France produces 10,000 tons of it.