Orange Juice Prices Surge Toward Record High

[Hum]

Orange juice prices rose the daily limit on Friday and near a record high, and were up 7 percent in the options market, amid speculation the United States may ban Brazilian juice imports which had used an illegal fungicide.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday some imported orange juice samples were tested to have safe levels of the fungicide carbendazim, but it made no mention of result of samples from Brazil, which accounts for about half of all U.S. imports.

The citrus market rallied on a worst-case scenario in which the FDA would order a ban of Brazilian juice products. Fears of shortage sent the frozen concentrated orange juice futures on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange up the daily limit on Friday, the second such increase in two weeks.

The FDA said on Friday that samples of imported juice from five countries were deemed safe. However, the U.S. regulator said 26 of the 45 samples it had taken since testing began on January 4 were "awaiting analysis or under compliance review."

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[Growled Member]

I've wondered many times why they import products that they would never allow the US producers to sale. We use Russian birch in some of our products and you can hardly stand to stand close to a sheet of it without your eyes burning. They would close us down if we made plywood like that.

[Hum]

Still got a half-gallon for 3 bucks -- not too bad.