Coop increases prices, Migros gives up advertising: This is why orange juice is becoming more expensive

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Orange juice is popular in Switzerland. Whether it’s a big Sunday brunch or a quick breakfast before work. However, orange juice is currently a scarce and therefore expensive product. Since mid-2022, prices for orange juice concentrate on the world market have more than doubled.

This logically also affects prices in the supermarket. Coop was forced to increase the prices of some orange juice products by 10 percent at the beginning of the year. Migros did not want to provide information about cost development. However, in the current campaign for M-Budget products, orange juice is not advertised, according to “Sonntagszeitung”. This is not intended to further stimulate demand. Radio SRF now reports that the cause of the shortage and significant price increase is disease.

Fruits become sour

The main growing areas of oranges used for concentrate are in the US states of Florida and Brazil. Yellow kite disease has been wreaking havoc there for a long time. “With this disease, the productivity of the orange plant decreases,” Hans-Jakob Schärer tells SRF.

Schärer is researching how to combat dragon disease at the Institute for Organic Agriculture at Frick AG. When infestation occurs, the fruits turn sour, contain little sugar or do not ripen at all. Yellow dragon disease has greatly reduced harvests in recent years.

How about fresh oranges?

The oranges we eat directly or use as freshly squeezed orange juice usually come from the Mediterranean region. The disease has not yet proven itself in these regions. But Schärer warns: “You have to assume that the disease will appear in Europe sooner or later.”

But the researcher is optimistic. It is possible to reduce the infestation with the mentioned measures. “We need to control the disease by planting resistant plants,” he explains to SRF. Therefore, the orange juice supply must continue to be secured in the future. (wgr)

Source :Blick