After ameliorating a little in December 2024, global orange juice prices rose again in early January 2025 to $5.0479 per pound. This is even as weather-related shortage in Spain and Florida weigh in.

Prices of the popular refreshment could remain strong, even going beyond the 2024 high of $5.5550 per pound back in September.  

Although Egypt had partially covered the juicing orange gap in early 2024, this did not endure into early 2025.

Instead, the current steep curve owes to not only shortage but cost-influenced falling consumption, which apparently fell by 15% in 2024.  According to the Globe and Mail in a June 2024 story, orange grove diseases and weather events have negatively influenced consumption.

The Spain Angle

The supply strain follows losses of over $205 million by production leader, Spain, after the country experienced stormy rainfall in October 2024. 

Experts in Spain’s AVA-ASAJA organization are however hopeful of a resumption of supplies, although this will take sometime.

This sense of hope is relevant given that oranges are a part of the Mediterranean economy. In 2022 before the weather vagaries, Spain reaped $3.6 billion in table orange exports, which ranked the 14th biggest national export.  

Florida Uncertain 

On the other side of the Atlantic, Florida in the United States is bracing for its lowest orange harvest in 95 years due to storms. 

After a spate of three major hurricanes between 2017 and 2024, the last being Hurricane Milton, farmers in Florida are still coping.

Despite a fruitful 2023-24 harvest that generated 2 million boxes of the fruit, Milton wiped out the gains. 

Costly Orange Juice

For this reason, frozen orange juice prices in the United States appreciated to $4.31 per 12 ounces in November 2024.

Globally, orange juice concentrate was also up to $5 per 12 ounces in November, an indicator of evenly distributed cost. 

This trend shows how devastating weather in major production hubs is bringing orange juice prices to a point of no return. As testament to how the price curve of orange juice has been pointing upward historically, below is an American example. 

U.S. Orange Juice Price Statistics 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that the prices of 12-ounce American orange juice have been increasing gradually between 1980 and 2024. Next are key timings of this price progression, all from the bureau’s data: 

December 1980: the price is at a moderate $1.147.

August 1990:  the price reaches $2.227, its highest point up to this time. 

June 1993 to November 2005: in the 12-year period between, prices remained relatively steady, from $1.587 at the lowest and $1.870 at the highest. 

November 2007: from this date on, when a 12-oz can sells at $2.512, prices remain elevated at over $2.00.

September-November 2024: the price is at its highest in the past 45 years in September through November 2024, reaching $4.306 in November.