Brazilian orange juice futures prices plunge 50%

As the world's largest orange juice exporter, Brazil's orange juice futures prices have fallen sharply, falling 50% this year by the end of March. In early January, the frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) contract on the New York Exchange hit an all-time high of $5.1465 per pound. On March 26, the price had fallen to $2.6210, having previously fallen to a low of $2.4290 on March 18. Valor Data data shows that orange juice futures prices have fallen 28.7% in the past 12 months. The reason for the sharp drop in futures prices is that the market expects Brazil's orange production to rebound to 260-300 million boxes in the 2025/26 production season (starting in May). In the best case, it may increase by 30% to nearly 307 million boxes in 2023. Last season, due to drought, Brazil's orange production was only 228.52 million boxes. Despite the price drop, there is little sign that global orange juice demand will rebound in the short term. Large buyers such as juice manufacturers ...