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Texas Citrus Industry on the Brink of Disaster
And artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages tied to new chronic kidney disease and RSA diverts more citrus to processing.
Jan van Iperen
December 20, 2024
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🧃 Juice News
“FDA investigators learned about the vats and, after entering the room, observed grape juice concentrate that testing later confirmed was contaminated with bird and rodent feces, fur, insects, decaying remains of animals, mold, yeast and other contaminants. FDA inspectors also observed and photographed a live rat walking across the hardened crust that had formed on top of the grape juice concentrate.”
While the company is based in South Florida, MinusSugar has chosen Brazil, the world’s largest producer of orange juice, as its first market. It has already partnered with industry leaders like Citrosuco, the world’s largest orange juice exporter, and Natural One, a premium juice brand.
Natural One’s CEO, Rafael Ivanisk Oliveira, praised MinusSugar’s early achievements: “MinusSugar is the first company to bring a solution for sugar reduction using a 100% natural process, combined with great potential to create a product for consumers with taste and freshness in line with the original versions.”
Sweetened beverages including soft drinks, artificial juices, and teas are “among the most consumed food groups in Brazil, with an average consumption of 65 litres per year per individual.”
“Excess sugar is considered one of the main causes of excess weight and, consequently, its associated diseases (type 2 diabetes, hypertension). Therefore, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with an increased risk of developing obesity.”
Originally a cordial producer, the Billson's brewery had expanded its range to include beer, ginger beer, cider, and alcoholic RTDs.
Matthias Blume, Coca‑Cola's vice president of marketing for ASEAN and the South Pacific, said the acquisition will enable the company “to expand in the dynamic and growing alcoholic ready-to-drink category in Australia”.
🍊 Citrus News
Texas' citrus industry is entirely based in the Rio Grande Valley and has a more than $300 million economic impact on the state.
"We are not a large physical footprint anymore, but we still pack enough economic punch," said Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, a nonprofit trade association that represents the interests of commercial citrus growers.
The reduction can be traced back to a 2020 hurricane followed by the winter storm in 2021. The freezing temperatures caused the loss of two crops –– the crop that was on the tree and the citrus flowers that were starting to bloom for the next crop, Murden said.
In Marketing Year (MY) 2024/25 growers in South Africa are forecast to divert more citrus volumes towards processing as elevated prices make juicing a lower risk alternative. The production of orange, grapefruit, tangerine/mandarin and lemon in MY 2024/25 are forecast to increase, assuming normal weather conditions, new trees coming into production, and sufficient water for irrigation. Export volumes of grapefruit, lemon and tangerine/mandarin in MY 2024/25 forecast to increase due to an improved production of export quality fruit. Domestic consumption of orange juice is forecast to decrease slightly on increased prices. South Africa is estimated to have exported record quantities of grapefruit to the United States in MY 2023/24.
Mandarin production in Japan continues to decline because of high summer temperatures, in addition to a decreasing number of farmers and planted acreage. Such factors are not anticipated to markedly increase citrus imports from the United States because of the sustained weak Japanese yen and inflationary pressures in the Japanese economy. The Japanese market is forecasted to continue experiencing orange juice shortages because of a lack of supply and reduced purchasing power for Japanese consumers.
Israel’s planted citrus area in marketing year (MY) 2024/25 is forecast to be lower than MY 2023/24 figures due to low profitability and water shortages, which has disincentivized farmers to plant new citrus plots. This year, the war also had a direct effect on the sector, as the lack of labor limited harvest and plot cultivation, as well as limited activities in packing houses. Since October 7, 2023, the effects from the war on the citrus industry have become clearer; as such, Post revises much of its MY 2023/24 data to represent these impacts. Exports were also affected and will continue to be impacted due to the disruptions in the Red Sea and higher freight costs.
"New concentrate factories are quickly being built in Egypt to respond to the situation in Brazil and Florida" "We may see another significant change in the 2026 season, as the supply of Valencia oranges for processing will probably decrease," says the trader. "In the past, large volumes of oranges were imported from Egypt in bins for the concentrate factories, which received thousands of containers a year."
🔬 Research Worth Reading
Higher intakes of artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are positively associated with developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study published online Nov. 25 in Frontiers in Nutrition.
Xiao-Yu Dai, from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Mianyang, and colleagues examined the associations of SSBs, ASBs, and natural juices with CKD risk. The analysis included 191,956 participants from the UK Biobank followed for a median 10.6 years.