A record orange crop, the falling of orange juice exports in the world and stocks that are almost full, make for a "disturbing" situation in Brazil, leading orange producer, according to exporters and producers.
"The situation is disturbing because in the worst case, one quarter of the 2012/2013 harvest, equivalent to 83 million boxes of 40.8 kilos of oranges, will not be collected" from the trees, said Christian Lohbauer to the AFP on Tuesday, president of the National Association of orange juice Exporters (CitrusBR).
Brazil, the largest exporter of orange juice with 85% of the world market. Currently Brazil has, before the record crop this year, "accumulated (juice) stocks of 560,000 tons, when its maximum limit is 825,000 tons," said Lohbauer.
"If we process all the oranges of the next harvest, estimated at 364 million boxes, there will be no room to save all the juice," said Lohbauer, who will meet on Wednesday with the Ministry of Agriculture in Brasilia to discuss the problem.
Brazil exports 70% of its orange juice to Europe and 15% to the U.S., which represents 1.2 million tons of concentrated juice per year, a consumption that has been decreasing for 10 years.
"Orange juice has been replaced by flavored water, gatorades (energy drink) and juice made from various fruits," he said.
"The surplus of oranges becomes a chronic problem and we'll have to see what we can do with the government to sell more oranges in Brazil. But anyway, it is only a palliative," the President of CitrusBR said.
From the perspective of the producers, the concern remains. Most still do not sign contracts with industries, according to Associtrus (Association of Brazilian citrus growers).
Source: AFP