Orange juice prices expected to jump
High prices for orange juice in the store will likely jump further in coming weeks, juice experts say, as markets react to potential chemical contamination in juice from Brazil.
The scare started after the maker of Minute Maid juice, Coca-Cola Co., recently warned that tests found low levels of a chemical called carbendazim in orange juice shipments from Brazil, a major exporter.
The amounts were well below levels that would cause a health concern, Coca-Cola said, but federal regulators started testing imports.
The United States banned carbendazim several years ago, except for use in some non-food items like clothing. But with the 2011 crop, some Brazilian producers used the chemical to combat a fungus that discolors the outside of the orange and causes trees to drop their fruit prematurely, said Thomas Spreen, a professor in the food and resource economics department of the University of Florida.
The maker of Tropicana Pure Premium, PepsiCo, also detected low levels of the chemical in orange juice imported from Brazil, company officials said, and they notified grocery store buyers of the issue last week.
Coincidentally, PepsiCo several months ago decided to stop importing orange juice from Brazil and transition to 100 percent Florida juice for its Tropicana Pure Premium brand.
Tropicana was already the largest buyer of orange juice from Florida, and the switch is now well under way, according to Tropicana officials.
Tropicana said smaller-than-expected crop levels also are pushing up costs.
The United States consumes about 500 million gallons of not-from-concentrate juice a year, Spreen said, with the vast majority coming from Florida.
About 55 million gallons come from Brazil, so a cut in imports from there is expected to boost wholesale prices that already are up 20 percent from last year.
Prices of lower-price orange juice from concentrate have been relatively stable over the past two years, according to data from the Tampa Tribune Market Basket survey, rising about 6 percent to an average of $2.48 per half gallon.
But with fresh orange juice, the bump in prices from the fungicide scare should take only a few weeks to work its way down to the grocery store shelf, Spreen said.
Fruit with Bill & Sheila
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