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Orange Juice Prices Soar To Record Highs As Inventories Collapse
Orange Juice Prices Soar To Record Highs As Inventories Collapse
We recently outlined “Orange Juice Prices Could “Increase Substantially” As Hurricane Pummels Florida’s Top Citrus Grow Region.” And that’s precisely what’s happening today.
First, let’s begin with US stockpiles of cold-stored orange juice plunged by 43% in September from a year earlier — the lowest level since 1977, according to the latest US Department of Agriculture data.
A combination of crop diseases across Florida’s citrus groves and Hurricane Ian that destroyed crops are creating a supply crunch that has catapulted orange juice futures contracts to as high as $2.18 per pound, the highest level ever.
Ahead of Hurricane Ian, we penned a note titled “OJ Squeeze Ahead? Tropical Threat Looms For Florida’s Citrus Groves” and warned this may spark even higher breakfast inflation. Last month, we noted that a dozen eggs at the supermarket have jumped to record highs due to devastating bird flu.
Sticky food inflation continues to wreak havoc on households, as shown in the latest CPI report.
Breakfast was cheap but has since become expensive as orange juice and egg prices soar to record highs.
Hurricanes’ Unnatural Toll
25% Of Homes In Florida Keys Destroyed By Hurricane Irma
25% Of Homes In Florida Keys Destroyed By Hurricane Irma
After Hurricane Irma overwhelmed the Florida Keys with 15-foot storm surges and 130 mph winds, causing the worst flooding the chain of islands has experienced in nearly a century, federal officials’ first assessment of the damage suggests that nearly a quarter of the homes on the island were destroyed, according to the Associated Press. While not every home is beyond repair, officials said no structures escaped some form of damage.
“Basically every house in the Keys was impacted in some way or another,”Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said at a news conference. “This is why we ask people to leave.”
While residents and business owners in the Upper Keys as far south as Islamorada were allowed back into the area Tuesday morning, Monroe County officials urged people to stay away. “Fuel, water, power & medical super limited,” the county said on Twitter, according to WSJ. The county has about 53,000 housing units, census figures show. Nearly all are on the Keys, a 110-mile ribbon of low-lying islands linked by bridges. Monroe County is home to 79,000 people, the vast majority of whom live on the archipelago.
Elsewhere, federal authorities have maintained their mandatory evacuation order during the early stages of the cleanup. Throughout the state, some 155,000 people are still in shelters and more than 9 million Floridians lack power, exposing them to the unpleasant summer heat. That’s compared with roughly three-quarters-of-a-million customers were still without power in Georgia and the Carolinas by late Tuesday, according to local utilities.
Meanwhile, workers Tuesday rushed to find any victims who had remained on the islands during the storm, and deliver food and water.
“It’s going to be pretty hard for those coming home,” said Petrona Hernandez, whose concrete home on Plantation Key with 35-foot walls was unscathed, unlike others a few blocks away. “It’s going to be devastating to them.”
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PRINCETON – The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began on June 1 and will end on November 30, is likely to be the most expensive on record. Hurricanes have killed close to 300 people in the region this season, and damage estimates so far stand at $224 billion. On a scale that measures the accumulated cyclonic energy of hurricanes, this season is the first to have recorded three storms each rated above 40. Fortunately, one of those three, Hurricane Jose, remained mostly at sea, where it did little harm; but Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused widespread destruction in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. Irma had an accumulated cyclonic energy of 66.6, the third-highest ever recorded.
Hurricane Harvey had less energy but brought record-breaking rain and flooding to Houston and other parts of Texas and Louisiana. Harvey may be the most expensive storm in US history, even exceeding the cost of rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Employment figures show that the United States lost 33,000 jobs in September, which analysts attribute to the hurricanes. Then, just as the season seemed to be winding down, Hurricane Nate caused at least 24 deaths in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, before heading for the US.
Harvey, Irma, and Maria were extraordinarily powerful storms. But the number of lives lost and the amount of damage caused reflect human decisions. Houston’s notorious laissez-faire approach to zoning allowed houses to be built on flood plains.
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