U.S. orange production has plummeted as the industry faces volatile threats from extreme weather events, an incurable disease and economic pressures.
Citrus growers are losing millions of dollars every year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
At the same time, orange juice futures have hit record highs.
“Citrus production in the United States [is a] pretty dire situation right now,” Daniel Munch, economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, told CNBC. “When you have a lack of supply that’s unable to meet demand, prices for consumers shoot up.”
Florida has seen a dramatic orange production decline in recent years. According to the USDA, there were over 658,000 orange acres in Florida in 1998. As of 2023, there were just over 303,000 acres of oranges planted in Florida, or a total acreage drop of more than 50% in just 25 years.
A large part of the problem can be traced to the spread of citrus greening disease, which is considered to be one of the most serious plant diseases in the world that is currently incurable.
“When citrus greening starts to enter the grove, it reduces the productivity of those trees, ultimately forcing them into death, and then therefore removal from the grove,” Amy O’Shea, CEO of Invaio Sciences, an agricultural sciences company, told CNBC.
The problems plaguing citrus production are not easily remedied as climate change has made extreme weather more common and scientists have yet to come up with scalable citrus greening treatments.
Some of the key research areas include fruit breeding for citrus greening-resistant varieties, antimicrobial treatments and other pest control solutions, like crop covers.
Invaio is one of the companies researching and developing treatments for citrus greening.
“We’ve developed a very unique precision delivery technology called Trecise, that we’re able to insert into the tree and deliver a very reduced amount of an antimicrobial, “O’Shea told CNBC.
When Trecise is inserted into a tree, the active ingredient goes into its vascular system as opposed to being applied outside of the tree, according to O’Shea.
In August 2023, Invaio’s Trecise received emergency approval for use from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Community Services.
The volatility of these threats may cut into citrus harvest expectations, which leads experts to believe that higher prices for orange juice are likely to remain, at least in the short term.