Orange juice futures are up more than 17% in the past couple of days as a result of continuing cold weather in Florida and on reports that a fungicide unapproved for use in the US has been discovered in juice imported from Brazil, supplier of about half the world’s production of orange juice.
A trader told Reuters that if Brazilian orange juice is banned from import, prices could rise as much as another $0.30/pound. Futures closed today at $2.12/pound. The US imported about 190,000 metric tons of orange in the 2010-2011 crop year.
About 25% of Florida’s orange crop experienced a hard freeze (below 29 degrees F) in the first week of January. The weather is expected to warm up this week though.
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