Orange juice caught in storm Ian

Hurricane Ian in North America shakes up the citrus sector. On the New York futures market, the pound of frozen concentrated orange juice has been going up for several days. It costs nearly $1.9, very close to the level reached in June, its highest in 6 years. About 90% of the production of Florida, the main producing state, is in the path of the hurricane. Between the floods and the gusts of wind, the farmers fear enormous losses. Especially since “there is nothing to do to protect crops, explains to Bloomberg Raymond Royce, head of an association of citrus growers. All production areas will be affected.

Some producers are hastily equipping themselves with pumps, but this will be far from being the solution, because the floods will affect the whole territory and there will be no place to release the pumped water in the middle of the orange trees. , worries Raymond Royce. Some operators have also pruned their trees to give them less wind resistance. Hurricane Ian revives the bad memory of the 2000s: after the hurricane season in 2005, some Florida arborists had great difficulty in fully restoring their production capacities. This year will be even more difficult because the sector is no longer strong enough to face such an episode due to the yellow dragon disease which is already ravaging Florida.