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 traded 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 also ravaged by the “yellow dragon” disease, also called “huanglongbing”, a bacterial disease preventing fruit from ripening. Oranges stay small, green and have a bitter taste that makes them unsafe to eat. No treatment is currently available to combat this disease.
According to the latest forecast from the United States Department of Agriculture, orange production is expected to fall by 63% this year in Florida to 15.85 million crates – weighing around 40 kg – from 41 million in 2022 and 53 million in 2021. It was still 240 million just twenty years ago.
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.
