Orange-Juice Futures Surge Most in Eight Months on Crop Disease

Orange-juice futures jumped the most in eight months after the U.S. government said that Florida’s crop, the world’s second-biggest, will shrink 6.4 percent to the smallest since 1990 after a crop disease damaged groves.

In the season that started Oct. 1, the state’s output may drop to 125 million boxes from 133.6 million a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on 8 November in a report. Freezing weather damaged the crop in 1990, the agency said. A box weighs 90 pounds, or 41 kilograms.

Orange juice for January delivery climbed 5.3 percent to settle at $1.315 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, the biggest gain for a most-active contract since March 8. Earlier, the price reached $1.3195, the highest since Oct. 1.

Trading was 80 percent above the 100-day average for this time. The commodity has advanced 12 percent this year.

Temperatures in Florida’s groves may drop as low a 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 Celsius) on Nov. 14, or more than 10 degrees below normal lows for this time of year, Anthony Chipriano, a meteorologist at MDA Weather Services in Gaithersburg, Maryland on 8 November.