Orange Juice Prices Will be Rising Soon Due to Huanglongbing
Posted on October 27, 2009
Orange juice lovers will be sad at this piece of news: orange juice prices are about to go up quite a bit due to citrus greening disease which is hitting Florida orange trees hard. If the disease is as bad as feared, it will substantially reduce output from the second largest citrus-producing source. Brazil is the primary producer of oranges worldwide.
The scientific name of the disease is huanglongbing (HLB). It is a disease caused by an aphid that reduces the yield from orange trees and in some cases kills the tree altogether.
A report in Scientific American says, "Borne by the Asian citrus psyllid, a small, invasive insect related to the aphid, HLB has spread to every county in the state, causing the citrus trees it infects to sprout misshapen, sour fruit. Once a tree is infected, there is no cure."
Here is a report on HLB from the Florida Division of Plant Industry. It is an ominous report. Take a look:
