Florida. The aftermath.

Spotty Citrus Damage, Some Severe and Orange Juice Climbs as Hurricane Milton Shrinks Florida Crop.

Author

Jan van Iperen
October 15, 2024

For Professionals in the Juice and Citrus industry

intro

🧃 Juice News

Non-alcoholic (NA) alternatives sales reached $493 million for the year ending Aug. 11, growing 33% year-over-year, according to SPINS data​. Despite the growth, NA beverages accounted for less than 1% of the total alcohol department sales, which totaled $74 billion for the same time period, per the same period. 

NA beer is the largest sub-segment of the market at $383 million, with dollars growing 24% and units by 21%, for the year ending Aug. 11. NA hard cider, flavored malt beverages and ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails saw the largest unit growth, growing by 480%, 83% and 105%, respectively, for the same period. 

The 90-year-old company has introduced a line of shelf stable pourable fruit and a shelf stable lemonade concentrate. Both look to meet the growing demand of restaurants for ingredients for fruit-forward beverages, said CEO Joe Prewett.

To get there, the company added a new line to its Salem manufacturing facility. Between research and development and adding new equipment, the company has invested under $1 million in these products.

LOLI Beauty, a sustainability leader in the beauty industry with fair-trade food-grade organic ingredients, waterless formulas and recyclable, refillable and compostable packaging, has closed.

🍊 Citrus News

A few themes are unfolding as Florida’s citrus industry begins to assess Hurricane Milton’s damage. First, it could have been worse. The overall citrus losses do not appear to be as bad as those incurred from Hurricane Ian in 2022. Second, the hurricane affected nearly the entire Florida Citrus Belt, but damage varies greatly depending on the specific area. Reports range from minimal to severe damage.

The setback was also accompanied by a weaker than expected forecast for Florida’s crop. Even before accounting for the damages from Milton, the US Department of Agriculture on Friday estimated the state’s orange output at 15 million boxes in its first forecast for the 2024/25 crop year. That’s already the worst crop since 1933.

Citrus export volumes reached 2,391,145 tonnes, including 1.93 million tons of oranges, and 147 thousand tons of lemons, an increase of 21% compared to the 2022/2023 season.

The summer of 2024 has been one of suspense, hope and anticipation. There is great suspense in learning how many acres will remain in citrus production, be repurposed or worse yet, be developed. There is a great sense of hope that Mother Nature will provide ideal growing conditions for the crop, and natural disaster recovery will not be part of our fall conversation. There is anticipation that currently employed therapies will begin to minimize drop and restore fruit size and internal quality. Through it all, there has been a fair bit of water cooler conversation about a lag in citrus tree orders and reports of nurseries struggling to survive while operating well below capacity.

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