In recent weeks, prices in the OJ futures market have topped $3 per pound. Around this time last year, prices were hovering at around $1.81 per pound. The price increase has been fueled primarily by short citrus supply around the globe. “It’s really a sad and perfect storm of what’s hitting the industry,” said Billy Roberts, senior analyst for food and beverage at CoBank.
” As the situation has remained bad or even worsened this year, traders are coming to terms with the low supply, added Roberts. The surging prices are “partially a realization of just how impacted the conditions have been,” he said, on top of other production costs. With supplies hurt by storm and disease, the United States is increasingly importing from international markets like Brazil, wrote Andrés Padilla, a senior analyst with Rabobank, in an April Rabobank report.