Futures prices soared 55.1% in 2023 as crop diseases in Brazil and California cut output sharply, creating problems feeding European markets.
The alarm bell had already been sounded since last November by the businessman, Spyros Theodoropoulos, who during a conference had pointed out that oranges will be the first product to start showing shortages in 2024.
“The largest orange grove on earth, which is South America, has burned down, causing its price to more than double. And the problem is not whether the price has increased from 2.5 euros to 6.5 euros, the problem is that the suppliers answer that they do not have goods to give at any price”, he underlined.
The jump in the prices of oranges was mentioned at a recent event by the Marketing Director of the Continental Bottling Industry (VIKOS), which also produces soft drinks, stressing that oranges are currently a big problem for industries, as their price has increased by regarding 150 %, thus affecting the production cost of the products.
It is indicative that in the last two years the price of orange juice on supermarket shelves has increased by 36.7% from 1.2 euros to 1.64 euros per liter. Another large company in the sector recently increased the price of the natural juice available in refrigerators from 2.9 euros to 3.5 euros per liter, while executives of the sector report to “ET” that by the summer prices are expected to increase further due to the unfavorable outlook in the major producing countries.
In the meantime, according to EL.STAT data. for inflation, the “water-soft drinks-juices” category ran at a double-digit growth rate of 11.7% year-on-year.
In this context, companies in the sector are looking for ways to reduce production costs. Given that our country uses juice from both Greece, which is more acidic, and from Brazil, which is sweeter, for the preparation of the specific products, and seeing that there will be a deficit in the market, one of the alternative plans that the industries are working on is to promote the production of blended juices by adding more apple juice.
Already, some industries have reduced the content of orange juice and have added other fruit in order to keep the prices at current levels and not to sell at 4 euros per liter.
Market representatives report to “ET” that the other alternative that companies have is to downgrade the quality of their products, which of course entails the risk of losing consumers and, by extension, market shares.
8,000 tons the Greek production
It is noted that Greece produces approximately 8,000 tons of concentrated orange juice, corresponding to 0.7% of world production, covering domestic needs through imports.
As far as the production of fresh oranges is concerned, according to estimates by the European Commission, in the current marketing period (October 2023-August 2024), it is predicted to be reduced by 1.7% compared to last year, mainly due to the decrease in production in Spain , which does not appear to be offset by the increase in Italy.
Regarding the domestic production of fresh oranges, according to recent Eurostat estimates, in 2022 it reached 874,000 tons, showing an increase of 7% compared to 2021.
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