Weather extremes overseas hit supplies of fruit juice concentrates

The price of fruit juice concentrates is set to rise further as last year's hurricane damage to crops in Florida and Cuba and the current dry weather in Eastern Europe take their toll on this year's harvests of citrus fruit and apples.

According to the British Soft Drinks Association (BSDA), supplies of concentrates of orange, grapefruit and apple juices are all under extreme pressure due to severe environmental conditions. The price of frozen orange juice has escalated 30% and there is no grapefruit concentrate available at all, said the BSDA.

Concentrated Florida orange juice stocks have fallen considerably following damage to trees by last year's series of hurricanes and damage to many trees by citrus canker. As a result, it is likely that this year's orange crop will be much smaller than expected. Florida also lost two-thirds of its grapefruit harvest last year.

According to the BSDA, the hurricanes caused even more extensive damage to citrus trees and processing facilities in Cuba, wiping out most of the 250,000t grapefruit crop and seriously damaging the country's orange crop. Also, said the BSDA, droughts in Poland mean that the apple crop there -- an important source for Europe's soft drinks makers -- would be down as much as 12%. As a result, apple juice prices have already risen 20%.

Although fresh supplies of grapefruit concentrate are difficult to find, most drinks producers have been able to meet demand from stock, said one leading UK juice supplier. Over the past 15 years, grapefruit juice has dropped from the number two position after orange juice to number four, it said.

"Those who want it will still be able to buy it," said a south-east based supplier who did not want to be named. "To say that grapefruit juice is in short supply is over-egging it a bit. It's tight. But we've just bought Cuba grapefruit concentrate at $2,600/t. In June 2004 we paid $1,100/t. Before the hurricanes struck, we were paying paid $920."