Brazil is the Goliath of orange juice, producing half of the juice in the world, says Quartz, so a worldwide slowdown in consumption is a big problem. Orange production is down sharply to 242 million boxes last year, compared to 400 million in 2014.
“To alleviate that pressure, Brazil is looking to grow more interest in orange juice elsewhere—and it need look no further than its own backyard,” says Quartz. Almost all of the orange crop is exported, most of it already turned into juice. “If it could keep some of that domestic, growers would be less reliant on other countries and more able to weather market fluctuations in exchange rates and commodity prices. ”
For a while, Brazil may have benefited indirectly from U.S. losses of groves to citrus greening disease. Now, there are signs of a recovery in orange production in Florida, the No. 1 citrus state.