Britons are being warned about the price of a breakfast staple rising as producers battle adverse weather and disease.
Demand for orange juice could outstrip supply, pushing up prices as soon as June with growers in Brazil contending with greening disease. Farmers in the world’s biggest producer of citrus are harvesting early in a bid to avert losses.
But this means fewer oranges available to make orange juice, with Harry Campbell, a fruit analyst at commodity price data provider Mintec, telling the Grocer the quality of fruit used to convert into liquid has been “disappointing”.
Mr Campbell told the same publication the situation has been made worse because of weak supply dynamics as Brazil’s three largest producers not putting their product on the market over scarcity fears.
UK supermarket prices have been creeping up since the start of 2024, with the Grocer’s tracker showing the average price of own label 1 litre orange juice £1.35, or 31 percent, higher than the same period last year.
Mintec’s expert said Egypt’s recent exporting of oranges to the European Union has eased pressures on supply.
Southern European countries’ production is also under threat because of the impact on crops of last year’s prolonged heat.
Coldpress Juices founder Andrew Gibb said recent price hikes have been unprecedented with costs doubling between 2022 and 2024.
Mr Gibb said the company, which sources its oranges from Spain, had no option but to pass on “modest” price increases of 11 percent to 15 percent for most customers.
He said Coldpress hopes to see “normalish” levels in Spain by early 2025.
Growers in Florida have been grappling with citrus greening disease, also known as huanglongbing, for more than a decade.
The disease has shrunk the US state’s output, with infected trees producing fruits which are green, misshapen and bitter.
Reuters reports that a main driver of the disease’s advance is the keeping of infected trees in commercial orchards, where there is “insufficient” control of psyllids.
The insects act as a carrier of the bacteria which causes greening and are becoming more resistant to insecticides, with a more favourable climate for sprouting said to be fuelling population growth.
Orange production for the 2023/24 season in Brazil’s citrus belt is estimated to have fallen to 309.34 million 40.8-kg boxes, 1.55 percent below the previous season’s production, Reuters reports.
