Manufacturers worry about a ‘global shortage’ of orange juice concentrates

The global production of orange juice concentrates has dropped worldwide due to the vagaries of the weather. French manufacturers warn that ruptures could be observed on the shelves in the coming weeks.

They describe “an unprecedented situation”. In a press release published Thursday and relayed by Beverage sectionthe fruit juice manufacturers represented by Unijus, the interprofessional union of the French fruit juice sector, warns of a “shortage of orange juice concentrates, both conventional and organic (…) on the market worldwide for several weeks”.

“This raw material used to make orange juice from concentrates and orange nectars (23.3% of sales of orange juice and nectars in supermarkets and supermarkets, Nielsen, 2023) has become very complicated to be found for all buyers in the juice sector”, observes Unijus, adding that “orders from concentrate suppliers are now subject to quotas for all companies wishing to buy them, a situation never encountered by the oldest buyers! “.

Among the main causes of this shortage, the vagaries of the weather which “affected several orange-producing regions” including Florida where production “has never been low following Hurricane Ian in September 2022”, notes Unijus . The interprofessional thus recalls that despite a demand for American orange juice “still strong, American production has continued to decline for 10 years to be only 16 million boxes in 2022/2023 against another 41 million boxes. the previous year and 134 million boxes 10 years ago!”.

For its part, the production of the Mexican neighbor fell by 30% due to the drought. Same observation in Spain, again because of the lack of water. Under these conditions, a large part of production now relies on Brazil. But the world’s leading supplier cannot “fulfill all orders that come from all continents”.

Price increases and stock shortages

According to the president of Unijus, Emmanuel Vasseneix, “global warming is accelerating things”. “Florida is disengaging from citrus cultivation in favor of real estate construction. As a result, American juice manufacturers are turning to Brazil, a country where 85% of orange juice is driven by three players,” explains he. As a result, “the flows that were heading towards Europe are now being diverted to the United States, which is creating pressure on prices. A ton of concentrated juice is bought today for 3400 euros, against 2600 euros from the previous harvest”.

At this stage, the shortage mainly concerns orange juice concentrates. But it “could also affect pure juices in the weeks to come by domino effect”, continues Unijus, which expects this situation to last “until September-October 2023, that is to say until the next harvest of orange juice which will start in mid-June 2023”.

In the meantime, orange juice packers warn that they may have “difficulty fulfilling their orders for concentrate-based products from their distributor customers”. As a result, “risks of pearl or dry breaks” could occur on store shelves. Prices are also expected to increase since “current prices from suppliers” are “50% higher than those offered last summer”.