Excess water in diluted orange juice produced by Brazil

(Bloomberg)--Brazil, the largest exporter of orange juice in the world, is producing oranges with excessive levels of water through the second harvest followed and there is no end in sight to the problem.
The main cause is the greening disease, which forced the producers to change the form and place of cultivation of the fruit. Brazilian companies squeezed 288.93 Orange boxes to produce a ton of juice in the season that began in July, while the historic average is 250 boxes, according to the National Association of exporters of Citrus juices (CitrusBR) in a statement on Monday.
In comparison, during the highly productive crop of 2002-2003 in Brazil, the sector could do the same amount of juice with just 224 boxes, show data from CitrusBR. No sign of improvement in the next few years, said the Executive Director of CitrusBR, Ibiapaba Netto, by phone.
"We believe that 275 cartons per tonne will be the new average from now on," said Netto.
The greening, which makes the fruit shrink or fall out prematurely from trees, appeared in Brazil in 2004. The disease has forced producers to destroy milhões trees to prevent the bacteria to spread and triggered the Orange production transfer to other parts of the State of São Paulo, the country''s main growing area.
"The fruit being grown in cooler areas or in places that require irrigation," said Julian Ayres, Manager of the Defense Fund of Citrus (Fundecitrus), in an interview by phone. "This resulted in a larger fruit, however, with more water inside."
The brazilian crop last year was the lowest in more than two decades in the disease and the impact of the climatic phenomenon El Niño. The drought has reduced the incomes in major production areas of São Paulo and in the region of the Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais. The low profitability also led the small Brazilian producers to leave the market.
The crop of Florida, USA, the second largest producer of orange juice in the world, contracted for years because of the disease that attacks citrus plantations and is expected to shrink even more, possibly generating the smallest harvest in five decades. The orange juice futures contracts rose 23% in the last 12 months in the negotiations in New York due to supply problems.