I think we all know how important the orange is to Florida’s economy. But there is a real chance the orange industry may be permanently crippled by climate change. Global Warming is the culprit. And some orange trees have been hit by a serious bacterial infection…
Juice Oranges: These ones, from Brazil, are healthy. Many juice oranges
are ripe when still partly green, unlike ‘eating’ oranges…
“Florida’s orange harvest is expected to be the smallest since 1930 because of major declines in healthy trees, affecting both farmers and consumers across the United States and Canada,” The Cool Down (TCD) reports. And we all know a series of hurricanes in recent years has wrought significant damage on the Florida citrus industry a whole. Meanwhile, “Brazil accounts for about 70 percent of all orange exports. The country has now experienced its third problematic harvest in a row.”
The danger is real
The combination of stresses on orange production poses a real danger to the continued supply of oranges and juice products in coming years. Maybe forever.
And the effects of the drastic harvest shortfalls are already being felt.
Prices soaring
“Prices of orange juice concentrate reached a new high of (US)$4.95 per lb / $10.89 per kg on futures markets [recently], after growers in the main orange producing areas of Brazil said they were expect-ing the harvest to be 24 percent down [compared to] last year at 232 million 90 lb / 40.8 kg boxes – worse than the 15 percent fall previously predicted,” The Guardian reported.
Desperate measures
There’s an old saying, that ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’. In this case, orange pro-ducers around the world are considering ‘backfilling’ orange juice products with other juices not affected by the citrus slump.
“The International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association has said it’s, ‘considering lobbying for a rewrite of UN-level food regulations so that orange juice can contain other citrus fruits, as well as pursuing rule changes at the country level’,” TCD tells us. Juice squeezers are considering using other species, including mandarins and mangos.
My take
This is a really big deal! Especially when you consider that the Florida Citrus industry as a whole normally contributes $6.935 billion annually to the state’s economy.
Whole communities reliant on the orange harvest must already be suffering from the effects of the coming harvest disappointment. Think of the jobs at stake. And the welfare of thousands of families that rely on those incomes. And the businesses that rely on folks to spend those dollars on their goods and services.
By comparison, a shortage of orange juice ‘up north’ seems a very small thing, indeed…
~ Maggie J.