Orange juice traded in New York has surged 59 percent in the past 12 months because of declining supplies. The Brazilian rain is coming just as the country’s stockpiles have fallen to the lowest on record. Florida’s production in the year starting Oct. 1 may drop as much as 26 percent from a year earlier, Christine Lensing, a senior economist for specialty crops at CoBank in Denver, said Thursday in a telephone interview.
“Prices have no where to go but up,” John Ortelle, a vice president at McKeany-Flavell Co., a brokerage in Oakland, California, said in a telephone interview. Supply concerns are overshadowing ebbing demand as ‘it costs more to produce fruit because of the problems we are having,” he said.
Orange juice for November delivery jumped as much as 2.1 percent to $1.9985 a pound on ICE Futures U.S., the highest for a most-active contract since February 2012. The contract settled up 0.9 percent at $1.9745 at 2 p.m. The surge will probably raise costs for companies including PepsiCo. Inc., which sells Tropicana juices, and Coca-Cola Co., which sells Simply Orange and Minute Maid brands.