🤯 Have you seen our AI stock pickers’ 2024 results? 84.62%! Grab November’s list now.Pick Stocks with AI

Florida Orange Crop Will Be Smallest Since 1943 on Ian Impact

Published 12/10/2022, 18:26
© Bloomberg. Fallen oranges and damaged trees following Hurricane Ian at a grove in Charlotte county, Florida.
ICE
-
OJ
-

(Bloomberg) -- Florida is set to have the smallest orange crop in almost eight decades after Hurricane Ian devastated citrus groves in the nation’s top fruit juice supplier.

The state will produce 28 million boxes for the current season, down from 41.05 million boxes a year earlier, the US Department of Agriculture said Wednesday in a report. That’s the lowest harvest since 1943. The drop marks the fourth straight annual decline for Florida’s key agricultural crop.

Orange juice futures rose as much as 0.8% to $1.92 a pound on ICE (NYSE:ICE) Futures US. The price is up about 50% in the last 12 months. Tight supplies in Brazil, the top orange grower, has contributed to the rally as well as higher industry costs.

The estimate marks the fourth straight decline for a key crop in Florida, which has been eclipsed by California in the past year as the nation’s biggest orange grower. The slump has been hastened by Ian, which carved a destructive path through orange groves in the latest blow to Florida’s $6.7 billion citrus industry. The storm’s devastation and crop woes in drought-struck California add uncertainty to the US production outlook and threatens to lift imports and prices as consumers struggle with the worst inflation in four decades.

The USDA will probably cut Florida’s orange crop further in the coming months when the severity of Hurricane Ian’s impact becomes evident, likely in the form of more fruit drop amid weakened trees, said industry consultant Judy Ganes.

‘Swampy’ Stench Permeates Florida Groves Hammered by Hurricane

The state’s crop has been in a downward trend for almost two decades, largely due to the devastating citrus greening disease that has decimated groves as well as urban sprawl and hurricane damage.

Climate change has been wreaking havoc on the world’s citrus crops, with severe drought in top grower Brazil and California helping crimp global supplies. Plunging US production is widely expected to boost imports from other nations including Mexico, which were already on the rise prior to Ian. A box weighs 90 pounds or 41 kilograms.

(Updates with orange juice futures price in third paragraph)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

© Bloomberg. Fallen oranges and damaged trees following Hurricane Ian at a grove in Charlotte county, Florida.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.