Workers load a truck with oranges at a farm in Limeira, January 13, 2012.
12:39 JST, June 2, 2024
Tokyo (Jiji Press) – An unprecedented orange juice crisis is hitting consumers in Japan due to supply shortages caused by natural disasters and a fruit tree disease in orange-producing countries.
Supply shortages have forced many Japanese producers to suspend sales of orange juice products.
In addition to the supply shortage, the yen’s depreciation has also been attributed to the recent increase in orange juice prices in Japan, which is almost entirely dependent on imported orange juice.
The average import price of frozen concentrated orange juice shot up from ¥293 per liter in 2021 to ¥550 in 2023 and ¥706 in January-March 2024, according to estimates based on Japanese Finance Ministry trade statistics.
The upward momentum of orange juice prices shows no signs of abating. On the US Intercontinental Exchange, the main futures contract on concentrated orange juice reached a record high in May.
The current orange juice crisis is mainly due to drought, torrential rains and a tree disease in Brazil, a major orange producer, and extensive hurricane damage in the United States.
Japan’s imports of frozen orange juice fell from 30.84 million liters in 2020 to 17.70 million liters in 2022. Although imports increased to 37.38 million liters in 2023, a shortage of orange juice persists following the slump in imports in 2021 and 2022.
During the current supply crisis, major beverage company Asahi Soft Drinks Co. in 2023 with the sale of orange juice products. Megmilk Snow Brand Co. has also partially suspended sales of orange juice.
Morinaga Milk Industry Co. will end sales in June or later. “We are sorry, but it is difficult to continue sales in an unstable juice supply,” a company official said.
Orange juice prices are expected to “fall gradually,” although depending on the impact of the El Nino weather phenomenon from May to July, said Naohiro Niimura, co-chief of Market Risk Advisory Co., who is familiar with commodity futures trading.
On the other hand, an official from a trading company specializing in fruit juices remains cautious on orange juice prices, saying: “As another season of poor orange harvests in Brazil seems inevitable, we may need to prepare for the possibility that retail prices in 2025 could could even be double the current level.”
