Why the prices of orange juice have continued to increase for a year ?

Le jus d’orange est l’un des plus consommé au monde. Unsplash – Mateusz Feliksik – Illustration

The price of orange juice has increased by more than 70% in just one year and prices have quintupled since 2020 in the United States, due to drought and yellow dragon disease which have cut prices the Brazilian harvest.

The price of a bottle of orange juice has increased considerably in one. Even distributor brands are not spared from this surge with prices that exceed 2.90 euros, indicates BFMTV.

An increase of 70%

This year, a ton of orange juice reached $6,500 on American markets, a figure up 70% compared to last year. ;last year. This product, one of the most consumed in the world, has increased by 300% and since then prices have quintupled in the United States since 2020.

The cause ? The drought and the yellow dragon disease which had consequences on the Brazilian harvest, notably the State of Sao Paulo, by far the country's leading producer, a major exporter to the United States.

"All these cumulative phenomena have meant that this year we should have had a normal harvest, but it is in fact 20% below the harvest of last year which was already not a good harvest", explains to BFMTV Emmanuel Vasseneix , president of the National Interprofessional Union of Fruit Juices (Unijus).

A drop of 24% expected

According to the president of Unijus, today there is a shortage of "the equivalent of European juice consumption; orange from concentrate". The Fundecitrus firm forecasts a drop of 24% over one year in the harvest in Brazil, to its lowest level in thirty-six years.

At the end of May, the futures contract on frozen concentrated orange juice, the market benchmark, for delivery in July, rose to $4,5325 per pound for approximately 450 grams . Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic at the end of February 2020, it has quintupled.