Orange juice has been putting a squeeze on customers’ wallets. On June 9, Axios the latest orange juice prices from the USDA’s Economic Research Service and found they are, in fact, on the rise. In April 2024, orange juice , almost double the price it was in April 2020 ($2.
40). Customers have been seeing the price climb significantly over the past four years, and the reason for it has to do with climate, disease and more. , an association maintained by Brazilian citrus growers and juice manufacturers, released its 2024-‘25 that predicts the state of the industry.
Authors wrote in the report that the projected volume of orange crop for the upcoming season will see a significant drop of 24.36% as compared to the previous year’s yield, though it’s not so far off from the average crop size over the past 10 years. The report notes the gradual decrease in Brazil’s orange production.
According to the data, an average harvest between the 1994-1995 and 2003-2004 seasons yielded 351 million boxes. That number reportedly dropped down to 337 million in the following decade. For the ‘14 — ‘24 decade, those numbers plummeted further to 308 million.
The report notes that if its production forecast holds true, this upcoming year’s crop will be the second smallest since 1989, when these forecasts started being published. Authors point to (a bacterial infection that affects citrus trees) and pests as reasons for the decline, but reiterate an “increasingly challenging” i.