Price of orange juice to skyrocket as drought, disease put the squeeze on beloved Aussie breakfast staple

The price of orange juice in Australia is set to soar as bugs and bad weather in the Americas region puts the squeeze on consumers. With most of the Australia’s fruit juice concentrate coming from Brazil, farmers say the prices are only going to get worse as the country battles with a bout of greening disease along with drought. Combined with storms in Florida, Mildura Fruit Company director Richard Marr raised the alarm on the potential for prices to rise by at least 20 per cent. Speaking to Ben Fordham’s 2GB program on Wednesday, Mr Marr said preserving Australia’s biosecurity from greening disease was “pretty darn important” for growers. “At this point it’s not here,” he reiterated on the program. Information from the non-government Brazilian policy development agency Citrus Defence Fund, says 38 per cent of the plants in the country’s citrus belt have symptoms of the disease. The region is in the grips of drought, and about 60 per cent of groves rely on natural rainfall. The citrus belt accounts for about 83 per cent of the cultivated area in Brazil. Mr Marr said Australian farmers grow about one per cent of the world’s oranges – enough to supply about half of our demand. Storms in Florida and drought in Brazil were forcing changes at supermarkets and fast food stores, he said. The lack of concentrate and juice meant some products would disappear from shelves, and other products had risen 20 per cent which would likely continue to rise. Stores in the quick service restaurant industry had switched from orange juice drinks to orange fruit drinks, with less juice and more flavours, Mr Marr said without “naming names”. “It’s just really trying to spread what people have got more broadly across demand,” he said. “It’s the old supply and demand issue. It’s good for the growers in Australia … they’re going to get a good price.” Mr Marr warned greening disease required total uprooting and replanting of trees, which meant an outbreak would take years to remedy. He warned the issues would not go away “overnight” because of this, combined with the adverse weather. The US outlet Fox Weather reports Floridian and Brazilian fruit production is at multi-decade lows. Hurricanes in 2017 and 2022 destroyed huge swathes of crops in America.