Orange Juice Is Most Expensive Since ’12 as Global Crop Shrivels
- Futures jump 59% in past 12 months on reduced supplies
- ‘Prices have no where to go but up,’ broker Ortelle says
Freshly-harvested oranges in Florida, on May 26, 2016.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A combination of too much rain and a disease-spreading bug is making the breakfast favorite orange juice a lot more expensive.
Futures for the beverage surged to the highest in more than four years as the world’s top suppliers face shrinking output. In Brazil, the No. 1 producer, excessive rain is raising the threat of fungal disease that can cut crop output, according to Cepea, the University of Sao Paulo research arm. In second-ranked Florida, a tiny insect is wreaking havoc on production by spreading the citrus-greening disease.