Orange Juice Market Takes Double Whammy Of Falling Demand And Declining Supply

In the United States, retail sales of orange juice dropped to 39.53 million gallons for the four weeks ending July 6, 2013, a record low, according to a Wall Street Journal data analysis. OJ prices declined 2.8 percent after the report was released, with delivery contracts in September 2013 on the ICE Futures U.S. market dropping to $1.4205 a pound. Traders held just $440.8 million, 60 percent lower than the $1.1 billion recorded in August 2011. Demand for OJ has fallen significantly, burdened by several factors, including the revival of the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet in the late 1990s; increase in competing products, such as energy drinks; and juice-based health trends, such as pomegranate and açai, according to Rabobank beverage strategist Ross Colbert. Also, the OJ market is facing a serious supply problem, with output in Florida, for example, dropping from its peak of 244 million 90-pound boxes in 1998 to 133.4 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.