NEW YORK (Reuters) – Orange juice futures on ICE exchange traded up as much as 5.5% on Wednesday as Hurricane Ian approached the Florida coast, threatening to damage orange trees in the country’s largest producing state.
Juice futures had already gained more than 2% in the previous session as the storm was expected to head to Florida. Risks grew for the plantations as the path of Ian changed slightly.
“The storm shifted east and further south overnight, placing more of the oranges in harm’s way,” said Judy Ganes, a soft commodities analyst with J.Ganes Consulting.
Orange juice prices have already gone up this year as Florida’s production is expected to drop sharply due to a fungus disease. The United States imports part of its consumption from Brazil and Mexico.
Florida is also the largest U.S. grower of sugarcane, but crops are located more to the west of the storm’s path.
“Sugarcane stalks are likely to bend (due to winds) rather than break,” Janes said.
Roughly half of the sugar produced in the United States comes from sugarcane, with the other half made out of beet planted further north in the country.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Richard Chang)
