News
Fri
14May 2010
Citro-merger
SAO PAULO, May 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian orange juice companies Citrosuco and Citrovita agreed to combine their businesses, creating a global giant with 2 billion reais ($1.1 billion) in annual revenue, the chief executives of both companies said on Friday. ($1=1.804 reais)
Thu
06May 2010
Severe freeze in China's Apple area
The hard freeze in Shaanxi and neighbouring provinces will have a serious affect on the coming Apple crop. The freeze happened during blooming, i.e. the most vulnerable time of the season.
Price of AJC from China is now expected to increase and product from other countries of origin will most probably show the same tendency.
Wed
10Feb 2010
First USDA estimate after the Florida freeze
Yesterday USDA released the first Orange crop estimate after the January freeze. It shows a loss of 6 million boxes, which is basically what we forecasted on 21 January (see below). Compared to last season it is down 21% and added to that should be a lower yield of 2.5%.
Grapefruit handled the cold temperatures much better and the estimate shows a loss of only about 3%.
The market should have taken the above scenario into account but nevertheless pricing of especially FCOJ seems to be firming up again.
Mon
25Jan 2010
Problems in Brazil...
This time of the year the processors in Sao Paulo State are normally at the very end of the Orange processing season and they are squeezing sweet, nice fruit that is giving them the much needed high Ratio Juice for blending with the early production. But this year is different...
Due to alot of rain it is first of all difficult for the pickers to get into the orchards. When they can pick the fruit the quality is not even close to what you normally get. Instead of Ratio 18-22 you will get 12-14. On top of that the size of the fruit is very big, which means that you will need more boxes of fruit to produce a Ton of concentrate which in turn leads to higher cost of production.
A large portion of the expected quantity of fruit is still hanging on the trees. If the rain continues and the sun is not shining the Ratio will not improve and the problem will get worse.
This is the main reason why the price of FCOJ from Brazil is increasing. What happened in Florida is of course not improving the situation...
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