A global shortage of oranges that sent prices soaring has prompted some orange juice manufacturers to consider turning to alternative fruits to make the breakfast staple.
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“There are three main factors driving the soaring price of orange juice, and it’s drought, disease and demand,” Ted Jenkin, oXYGen Financial CEO and co-founder, told FOX Business.
The spike stems from declining output in Florida, which is the primary U.S. producer, and disease and extreme weather events in Brazil, which accounts for about 70% of global production.
Orange trees in Brazil have been suffering from a disease known as citrus greening. Once infected, citrus trees produce fruits that are partially green, small, misshapen and bitter. There is no cure, and trees typically die within a few years of infection.
The disease, along with severe heat waves and drought that occurred during the pivotal phases of flowering and early fruit formation, have put Brazil on track to register one of its worst orange harvests in more than three decades, according to a new report published by Fundecitrus and CitrusBR.
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In the past, orange juice makers have avoided long-term shortages by freezing juice stock, which can be preserved and used for up to two years, according to the Financial Times. However, even that frozen stock is dissipating because of a three-year shortage build-up.
Cools said that manufacturers may have to consider using a different fruit, like mandarins, because their trees are more resistant to the greening disease. However, that could be a lengthy process.
They didn’t give a reason for declining output in Florida. I assume global warming related, but I wonder if there’s another reason
It does say:
There’s also the fact that Florida just chased away all the migrant workers and undocumented workers. Bit of a labor shortage down there at the moment.
We did chase away a lot of the migrant workers and climate change is very real. However it’s the citrus greening that is to blame. We don’t even need the citrus pickers because there is nothing to pick.
Here is a picture of an orange on one of my trees. Itt should be much bigger starting to turn yellow and unblemished. It will get a little bigger stay green and then fall off.
They pissed off migrant workers too, didn’t they?
Wee bit of a labor shortage perhaps?
There is no labor shortage with current production efficiency. There is labor underpay.
Florida has been making it increasingly difficult and hazardous for undocumented immigrants to live and work in Florida. Hence labor shortage.
Not labor shortage, but cheap/almost-slave labor shortage.
I hope unions in Florida will use this situation to greatly improve working conditions and increase workers’ wages.
Also quick search shows there are layoffs in Florida anyway, so again, not labor shortage, but almost-slave labor shortage.
Argue semantics all you want. It is a labor shortage caused by Republican policies which keep out the cheap labor while doing nothing to address the gap that creates.