Australian consumers are being warned to expect orange juice price rises as global producers battle a major crisis.
Growers in Brazil, the biggest supplier to Australia, have been hit by severe drought and a devastating disease impacting their harvests.
Richard Meagher, of the Mildura Fruit Company in New South Wales, told Ben Fordham on 2GB today that Australians will be seeing a jump in the price of the popular breakfast drink.
'We've already seen prices move up by about 20 per cent and we'll probably see more movements," he said.
Australia produces only about 1 per cent of the world's oranges and juice producers here are dependent on imports from Brazil, Mexico and the United States.
But growers in those countries are battling major threats to their crops.
Orange trees in Brazil have been struck by citrus greening disease, which is spread by ants and starves fruit of essential nutrients.
"This basically hits the fruit quality and hits the fruit yield, and basically ends up killing the tree'," Meagher said.
The solution is for disease-stricken trees to be ripped out and replanted – a lengthy process.
"This won't go away overnight," Meagher said.
Extreme weather events have also taken their toll on global supplies, with a series of hurricanes in the US damaging orange-producing areas in Florida.
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