Hard Freeze Could Impact Orange Juice Prices

The subfreezing temperatures last week actually raised optimism for some farmers.

If the price of orange juice goes up and stays that way for a while, it could provide some monetary relief for those who oversee acres of orange groves.

"Probably prices will go a little bit (higher), but I don't know if it will go way up to satisfy the growers," said Mongi Zekri, a citrus extension agent for the University of Florida, who oversees Southwest Florida. "There's been a huge difference in prices between this season and last season."

Last week, prices of frozen concentrated orange-juice contracts jumped 3.6 percent based on weather forecasts, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Maybe we can make a profit," said Zekri. "The low prices correlate with the high inventories of juice that we have."

Those high inventories have kept some farmers, particularly those in rich orange grove areas such as Polk and Hendry counties, from panicking over the recent cold snap.

Whenever temperatures are 28 degrees or below for four or more hours at a time, oranges can dry out and therefore, produce less juice.

Last week's colder weather might have been just enough to tip the inventory balance in favor of the farmers.

Shannon Patten, a Publix spokeswoman, said Friday there were no indications there would be a price spike for orange juice.

The citrus industry in Hernando County and in all of Florida suffered as a result of hard freezes.

In 1998, the state produced approximately 75 percent of the oranges in the United States and accounted for 40 percent of the world's orange juice supply.

Those numbers have declined only slightly, but citrus growers migrated more to the southern parts of Florida following a series of freezes in the 1980s, according to the Florida Department of Citrus.

The 1980s were devastating to the orange and tangerine growers in Hernando County and most of them either moved or abandoned the industry.