Orange Juice Futures Jump To All-Time High
By Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - That carton of orange juice at the grocery store could soon put quite a bigger dent in your wallet.
Orange juice concentrate futures prices jumped to an all time high thanks to the recent cold snap in Florida and new that the FDA might block imports from Brazil because they use a fungicide that is banned here in the US.
But Tom Kovacevich of T.M. Kovacevich Produce here at the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market says while juice prices could go up, prices for fresh oranges are pretty much staying put. "The fresh orange market is very separate from the concentrate market."
So, Kovacevich says you can save a lot of money, by juicing your own oranges. "You can buy a 40 pound case of oranges for $20, and out of that 40 pounds, you can get four gallons, that then would cost you $5, and that's literally half the price of what it would cost to go buy processed juice anyway."
As for commercially made juice, the FDA says they're not concerned about the safety of juice currently on the market, but they do want Brazilian growers to stop using the fungicide.
