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submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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.

...

"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.

...

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.

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[-] [email protected] 128 points 1 year ago

The currently sold-in-stores orange juice tastes almost nothing like actual orange juice already.

[-] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago

You have been drinking orange juice, not orange juice. It's an easy mistake to make.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Orange flavored drink .

The best orange juice I tasted was in Rome at Dunkin Donuts, They squeeze the blood oranges right into a cup for you! 🤤. This was a long time ago.

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

Right I have no idea how they make that stuff but I just always assumed it contains little actual orange.

[-] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago

There’s a dirty secret in your glass of orange juice. Even though it says “not from concentrate,” it probably sat in a large vat for up to year with all the oxygen removed from it. This allows it to be preserved and dispensed all year-round. Taking out all the O2 also gets rid of all the flavor. So the juice makers have to add the flavors back in using preformulated recipes full of chemicals called “flavor packs.” Mmm, delicious, fresh-squeezed ethyl-butyrate!

https://consumerist.com/2011/07/29/oj-flavor-packs/

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Ecogreenaturalganic 100% GMO-free.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The brand "simply" tastes like fresh squeezed (it also is the proper color and not that Nickelodeon neon orange), but most other brands taste more like Sunny Delight than actual orange juice.

Simply is hella expensive tho.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Generic orange juice is a commodified product (ie, you can order a standard 1 tonne of frozen orange juice whenever).

The freezing process destroys a lot of the flavour, so some rind extract is included to bulk up the taste.

Freshly squeezed still has the original flavour, and not the added rind flavour.

(I didn't look this up, mind, it's possibly I've just repeated an old wives tale!)

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[-] [email protected] 89 points 1 year ago

If my grade school art teacher was correct, they could take some red cranberry juice and add some yellow lemon juice to get the same result.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

Ngl, that actually sounds pretty good

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

It's not that far off of a cosmopolitan cocktail in concept

[-] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Just needs vodka

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

They didn’t give a reason for declining output in Florida. I assume global warming related, but I wonder if there’s another reason

[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago

They didn’t give a reason for declining output in Florida.

It does say:

On top of that, Florida has been hit by a series of hurricanes as well as the greening disease, which is spread by a tiny insect called the Asian citrus psyllid.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

They also cut down a bunch of orchards to build more retirement neighborhoods.

[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They pissed off migrant workers too, didn't they?

[-] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Chasing out all of the migrant labor with threats of legal action and/or violence.

They just didn't want to say that for some reason.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Wee bit of a labor shortage perhaps?

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

There is no labor shortage with current production efficiency. There is labor underpay.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Florida has been making it increasingly difficult and hazardous for undocumented immigrants to live and work in Florida. Hence labor shortage.

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[-] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Best thing about the color and fruit having the same name is as long as the juice color is the same it will always be Orange Juice.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Warning: this is orange juice, not orange juice

[-] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

The color is named after the fruit

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Oh how the tables have turned...

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220627-how-orange-juice-took-over-the-breakfast-table

"The innovation [of concentrated juice] arrived as Florida growers were dealing with cyclical, massive overproduction. The promise of a new way to make juice that could be kept frozen, then reconstituted in people’s homes, prompted them into even more production, however. They ramped up tree planting in the 1940s. The oranges went to frozen concentrate and eventually, to chilled juice, an industry term for the refrigerated product. If juice could be kept in stasis, held in waiting for a consumer’s glass, then the only problem was ramping up demand as much as possible."

...

"It had taken a few decades, but with the help of advertising and processing technology, the dumping ground for extra oranges was solidly ensconced as its own product, far outpacing oranges themselves in sales."

[-] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

It isn't just ' freezing juice stock', really that hasn't been the way things have been done in a long time.

JuicePaks from givaudan have been normalized since maybe the '80's.

Consumers expect orange juice to taste like 'orange juice', year round, whether it was a good or bad year. There isn't anything intrinsically bad about that anymore than expecting bananas to taste like Cavendish.

The world is changing though, and tastes will have to adapt.

[-] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

It's raspberry jam all over again!

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

"Ain't no such thing as climate change!!!"

[Climate charge ends orange juice]

"Librulz want to CANCEL my orange juice!!!!"

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

"My God. The Dukes are going to corner the entire frozen orange juice market!"

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this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
436 points (97.2% liked)

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