Brazil: Orange juice industry may benefit from Florida citrus losses

Many mango producers from Livramento de Nossa Senhora, Bahía region, didn’t harvest any fruit last week. According to HF Brasil, the rains of last week were welcome, however, it limited field activities, the harvest and transportation. On the other hand, some producers mention that the low prices result in producers holding fruit in the orchards on purpose.

Grapes
Marialva, Paraná state, started harvesting their grapes last week at a slow pace. HF Brasil says that due to high temperatures in June the flowering was affected. Therefore, it is expected that more producers will start harvesting in the second half of November. In this first week of harvest, the average value was R$ 4.30/kg. This is 27.6% lower than last year, but 20.4% higher than the first harvest week of 2015.

Melons
According to HF Brasil, a high stock of cantaloupes in the European market, part of the harvested volume from last week was sold on the local market. The domestic market price dropped because of this. Moreover, the watermelon export from Teixeira de Freitas (Bahía) was affected last week because of the rainfall in that region. “Even though with lower supply, melon producers reported difficulties in the commercialization.”

Citrus
According to HF Brasil, Brazil might benefit from the losses of the citrus crop in Florida. The USDA released its second official estimate for the 2017/2018 crop in Flora, which is the largest citrus producers in the US. In this report it’s published that export is expected to be around 50 million boxes, which is almost 30% less than the previous season. HF Brasil says that these numbers show a drop in local production, but some industry players expect even less. Therefore, the demand for Brazilian juice oranges may remain firm. They conclude that from July to October, shipments are 54% more compared to the same period previous season.