You might want to stock up on mimosa supplies , like , now . Reports out of the Sunshine State suggests the US will before long face a serious orange shortage , and the top - sell juice sector is primed to take a moderately hard strike .
Over the retiring few years , Florida ’s orange - growing neighborhood has fallen target to a Molotov cocktail of massively destructive hurricanes and agrarian disease , and this class ’s crop represents the worst harvest ever recorded . The US Department of Agriculture is presage 2016 ’s fruit yield will be a full 14 % less than 2015 ’s – just 70 million loge amount – and this comes after five year of continuously declining bit . It ’s bummer times at the orange woodlet .
For the rest of the country , less produce translates to costly OJ , and the average terms for a carton of the good clobber has almost doubled since last summer . To help keep their business alive and combat grocery aisle sticker shock , succus companies have begun making the move to diminished , less expensive cartons , which , in reality , mean less bang for your vaulting horse . They ’ve also pop cranking out more juice blends ( i.e. orange tree - Ananas comosus , orange - banana , orange - whatever ) instead of full-strength - up OJ .
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Farmers pop to point out a serious drop in production back in 2005 , when a bacteria - borne disease called Huanglongbing , or HLB , sail through southerly Florida and fatally infected lots of citrus tree diagram in its wake . And , to add affront to wound , a tiny , HLB - propagate germ called the Asiatic citrous fruit psyllid has been blowing into town on the back of hurricane for the retiring 10 class , further the havoc .
Even though Big Juice has spent upwards of $ 100 million dollars on attempt to figure out how to beat HLB , nobody seems to have the resolution . duad that with an increase in kookie , unpredictable , and wholly withering weather patterns , and you ’ve got a recipe for a newly - squeezed - juiceless future tense . So sip that screwdriver while you’re able to , buddy ; things are about to get a muckle less juicy .
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