Orange Juice May Never Come Back

A story in Bloomberg Businessweek notes that breakfast staples such as eggs, butter, and even cottage cheese have rebounded after being out of favor with the public. Orange juice? Not so much. Consumption in the US is down by more than half since its peak in the late 1990s, and a slew of challenges stand in the way of a comeback.

• Nutrition: Though it was once considered a must for health, more consumers have grown leery of the sugar at play. And not just added sugar: Nutritionists note that juicing oranges rather than eating them whole means the fruit's fiber is no longer there to slow sugar consumption.
• Prices: They're climbing for both the bottles and frozen concentrate varieties. The latter, for example, averaged $4.24 a pound last year, up 30% from the previous year. Meanwhile, bottles of OJ are getting smaller as prices go up, up, up, per the Atlantic. Potential tariffs on Mexico (which fills gaps in US production) and Canada (a huge market for US exporters) won't help.

• Storms: Hurricanes Ian, Irma, and Milton have taken a huge toll on Florida's citrus industry in recent years. After Milton slammed the state in October, for example, Tropicana supplier Alico said it was exiting the citrus business and converting its acreage into other use.
• Disease: On top of a worsening climate, a disease called "citrus greening" is wiping out groves. From the Atlantic: "Around the world, millions of acres of orange trees have succumbed, and in the past 20 years, production in Florida's storied orange groves, which once supplied the majority of America's juice, has declined 92%."
• Fighting back: Brands such as Minute Maid and Tropicana are experimenting with new blends (adding apple or pear, for example) to bring down costs, and spending heavy on marketing. Whether it will be enough is another question. Yasmin Tayag puts it this way in the Atlantic: "As orange availability slides, the era of orange-juice ubiquity is rapidly coming to an end."

(More orange juice stories.)