Posted on 01/19/2022 7:48:20 PM PST by blam
The first meal of the day may soon become more expensive for consumers as food inflation soars.
A combination of citrus disease and adverse weather conditions have plagued Florida’s orange crop and may soon constrain supplies, which has already forced orange juice prices to multi-year highs as demand remains robust.
“You have your classical supply-demand mismatch,” Shawn Hackett, president of Hackett Financial Advisors, which specializes in agricultural commodities analysis, told CNN Bussiness. Due to dwindling supply, “much higher prices are coming to supermarkets,” he warned.
Last week, the US Agriculture Department issued a report about the state of Florida’s orange crop, revealing the Sunshine State will harvest only 44.5 million boxes of oranges this year, the smallest harvest since the 1944-45 season.
“The Florida citrus crop is going to be one of the smallest crops since the 1940s,” said Judith Ganes, president of J Ganes Consulting, which offers commodities analysis to the food and agriculture industry.
“It’s going to be even smaller than the production that occurred several years ago … when Hurricane Irma blew through Florida,” Ganes said.
In what appears to be a citrus shortage developing, frozen orange juice futures have been squeezed higher, up more than 50% since the start of the virus pandemic. Prices are around $1.55 per pound as speculators could send prices to as high as $2.
Besides oranges, prices of other agricultural commodities have risen over the last year as supply-chain disruptions and or bad weather has kept inventory low.
Breakfast is becoming more expensive. Consumers are paying some of the highest prices for food in a decade as their real wages are wiped out by inflation. None of this has helped President Biden ahead of the midterms as his polling numbers drop to new lows.
“Turn those machines back on!”
Delicious drink, but not healthy for people with blood sugar problems.
In the first half of the 20th century, just about all bananas sold in the marketplace were Gros Michel variety. But a fungus came along and virtually ended that type as a profitable crop. Since the 1960s, stores have instead been selling Cavendish variety of banana, which is all most of us know, but not the same as the Gros Michel.
If the Citrus greening disease continues to get bad, we may need to find some sort of similar replacement crop. Or else do without oranges entirely.
BTW: “Gros Michel” means “Big Mike” for those who follow Obama and his lovely wife with the banana.
“Where is Beeks?”
Oh yah, well I’m selling the car and buying...CA oranges instead.
Capitalism, catch it!
We are importing more Oranges from Brazil than we use from Florida. Brazil is the #1 Orange grower in the world.
It - was - the - Dukes! It - was - the - Dukes!
OJ’s back in the news again! Who did he kill now?
No, it isn’t. My doctor said to only drink small amounts in moderation, but dang it, I love oranges, OJ, as well as Indian River red grapefruit juice and my little cups of (no sugar added) red grapefruit slices in their own juice.
That was my first reaction too.
Resident Biden is the worst person to ever claim to be President after having been declared President by a reflexively-treasonous Democratic media.
Is the Gros Michel banana still around or is it extinct today?
There is Texas and CA and interestingly Louisiana for other citrus producing states, including oranges. Thanks to labor activists and the EPA— US citrus has been overtaken by Brazil, who pay their labor next to nothing and follow zero environmental protective chemical/pesticide restrictions. This is why— caused by our own EPA— they are so worried about the environment no other country does anything about. China also, of course.
Yes it is the administration blaming “Big Meat” for the rise in meat products, not their policies. And now they have to blame “Big Orange”, most likely on the Duke brothers.
For perspective, the largest crop, in 1999, was about 240 million boxes
Besides citrus canker, a strong property market for the last 20+ years has taken a lot of farms out of production as well.
LOL!
This should be a classic FR post...gotta go get popcorn.
Immana hold out for pork bellies.
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