Brazil’s the Saudi Arabia of orange juice. Like the Arab oil giant, Brazil by virtue of exporting 99% of its OJ, is the world’s dominant supplier. Last year, Brazil’s two largest OJ exporters dominated supply with an 80% slice of the European market. Last year, two of Brazil’s largest OJ exporters, Citrosuco and Citrovita, merged linking together 25% of the world’s orange juice supply. But The European Commission says not so fast.By Carole Lauriat, AJOTBrazil is the world’s number one exporter of orange juice, followed by Florida. Together they produce roughly 85% of the world’s orange juice. There is a big difference: Brazilians drink only 1% of their production as they have better beverages to drink, like Caipirinha (a sugar/lime cocktail, know as the national drink) while 90% of Florida’s production is consumed in the US and only 10% is exported. By virtue of exporting 99% of its production of OJ, Brazil has become the Saudi Arabia of this liquid gold and is poised to capture even a bigger slice of the market, if recent events are any guide. According to the USDA, in 2010, Brazil exported 1,223,000 metric tons (MT) of orange juice, and Brazil’s exports are expected to grow by 12% in 2011, amounting to as much as $220 billion in revenues. Although, Brazil exported less orange juice by volume in 2010 than it did in 2009, the value of exports grew by 30% with price increases. According to figures from the Brazilian Association of Citrus Exporters (CitrusBR), in the 2010 season (July 2009 to the end of June 2010), Brazil exported 524,981 tonnes of orange juice for US$660.17 billion. This compares to exports totaling 611,437 tonnes in the 2009 season, with revenues of $847.58 billion. According to figures by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), the growth over 2009 was 11.48%. In terms of volume, Brazil exported 1.3 million tonnes of concentrated juice in 2009, and 1.2 million tonnes in 2010. According to the Florida Department of Citrus, US imports of orange juice during January through December 2010 totaled 303,801,970 single-strength equivalent (SSE) gallons (down 10% compared to last year) with an FOB value of $395,897,328 for an average price of $1.30 per SSE gallon (up 30%). Of these imports, 59,049,460 SSE gallons were not-from-concentrate (NFC) (up 9% from last year). Orange-juice imports into Florida ports represented 37% of the volume for 2010 (74% for NFC), compared with 36% of the 2009 volume (76% for NFC). Brazil supplied 56% of the volume in 2010 (94% for NFC) compared to 51% in 2009 (97% for NFC).
Assets of Citrosuco / Citrovita Merger
  • Plants in Brazil 6 (state of São Paulo)
  • Plants Abroad 1 (Florida, USA)
  • Port Terminals 2 (Brazil) and
  • 6 (USA, Belgium, Australia and Japan)
  • Number of Vessels 5 own vessels and 3 chartered
  • Number of Employees 6,000, reaching 10,000 in the harvest season
  • Annual Net Revenues US$ 1.2 billion
Brazil wins the zero sum game In February 2011 the World Trade Organization (WTO) made a final ruling in Brazil’s favor in a dispute with the United States over anti-dumping measures imposed on its orange juice exports. The decision by a WTO dispute panel was the second major trade dispute Brazil won against the US. A year earlier, Brazil won a successful case against US cotton aid. Brazil challenged the methodology, “zeroing,” that the US Department of Commerce used in applying antidumping tariffs on Brazilian orange juice. The US Department of Commerce uses “zeroing” for assessing duties on goods that are allegedly “dumped,” or imported for less than they cost at home. Accordi