Disease kills citrus trees – risk of orange juice shortage

Extreme weather and plant diseases hit the world’s citrus plants hard.

The price of oranges is already sky high – and soon they will be completely gone.

Now the experts are warning that the store’s juice shelves may soon be empty.

Citrus greening, or yellow dragon’s disease in Swedish, is a plant disease that kills citrus plants. Citrus greening is the main reason for the reduced production volumes of oranges that have caused prices to skyrocket.

The disease has increased dramatically lately, writes Livsmedelsföretagen in a press release. Something that can cause major problems for Swedish food companies that produce and sell orange juice.

“The shortage will unfortunately have a major impact on the availability of orange juice in stores,” says Magnus Berndtsson, chairman of the Swedish Juice Association and CEO of Eckes Granini Sweden.

Extreme weather

In orange-growing countries such as the USA, Spain and Brazil, extreme weather is a fact. Hurricanes, rain and drought affect the harvests negatively – and cause the yellow dragon’s sickness to increase.

There is still no cure for the disease.

For the juice companies, this means that they have to rearrange their production.

“There is a lot of innovation going on at the juice companies, where new drinks with other fruit and berry flavors are continuously launched in the trade,” says Magnus Berndtsson.

FACTS Citrus greening

Read more