Brazil's Orange juice exports close 2018/19 season with 20% drop

The total exports of orange juice from Brazil declined 20% in the 2018/19 crop, closed in June, compared with the previous season, totaling 925,884 tonnes, the National Association of Citrus Juices Exporters (CitrusBR) said in Monday (29). The revenues with the shipments of orange juice (FCOJ equivalent to 66 º Brix), in turn, recorded a drop of 18% in the period, to US $1.7 billion, still according to CitrusBR. Agreement with Mercosur-EU to zero rates for orange juice The association cites as main justifications for the casualties a recovery of the Florida crop in the United States, and a decrease in the consumption of the product in Europe. "In the 2018/2019 harvest, the Florida hurricane season was bland, contrary to what occurred in 2017, when Hurricane Irma devastated the orchards, and greatly affected local production, forcing Americans to import much more juice," said the Executive director of CitrusBR, Ibiapaba Netto, in a statement. In the annual comparison, exports to the U.S. marked 39% falls in both volume and revenue, totaling 193,683 tonnes and 341 million dollars. "In Europe, we perceive a certain setback that can be associated with migration to other products, a fact that has been constant in recent years," he added. Sales for Europe had a 10% drop in volume, with 606,522 tonnes, and 8% in revenues, with US $1.1 billion. Second worst result since 2001 In a historical series compiled by CitrusBR, which starts in 2001, the volume shipped in 2018/19 loses only for the 894,700 tons recorded in the 2016/17 season, when the sector had a minimum by impact of a strong crop break. Exports of orange juice from Brazil usually exceed the mark of 1 million tons per year, this being the second crop of the historical series of CitrusBR to finish below the value--next to exactly the 2016/17 season. In addition to the lower demand, the sector faced a lower supply of fruit in 2018/19, with a drop of almost 30% in the production of the citrus belt of the largest global exporter of orange juice. For the next season, the production of Orange should recover, according to the estimate of the Defense Fund of the Citriculture (Fundecitrus). Separately, the shipments of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) totaled 660,699 tonnes in 2018/19, an indentation of 24.68% before 2017/18. The sales of the non-concentrated NFC juice had better performance, with a drop of only 0.5% in the period, totaling 1,495,918 tonnes. "NFC performance was not bad, taking into account that, in the past crop, exports to the US were far above average because of the effects of the hurricane," Netto said. "The numbers reinforce the growth trend of NFC in relation to FCOJ."