The Pricing Digest: Fruit Juice 101

Welcome to our quarterly pricing digest. It’s a huge topic, so we’re taking one key factor we expect to affect prices in the soft drinks industry, and offering some insight to help you with your buying decisions. In this edition, we’re looking at the fruit juice market.

But before we jump in, here’s a quick word on recent consumer price inflation stats. The ONS reports that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages fell by 0.3% between April and May 2024, compared with a monthly rise of 0.9% a year ago. The annual rate of 1.7% in May 2024 compares with 18.4% in May 2023. So, after a couple of years of soaring figures and record highs between 2021 and 2023, prices in the soft drinks industry have remained high but stable over the past 12 months.

The juicy details
Fruit juice is a main ingredient in a huge number of soft drinks, from kids’ cartons right through to luxury mocktails. According to Juice Market, there’s been tremendous volatility in the fruit juice market over the past year. Brazilian orange harvest yields have dropped by nearly a quarter from the previous season, with dry growing conditions and disease looking like the cause.

Polish apple harvests have also been down, after cold spells in April and May. Argentina saw an unusually rainy April, disrupting the country’s lemon harvest, whilst Thailand’s pineapple crops have been disturbed by poor weather.

However, despite poor grapefruit growing conditions, and higher premature drop rates for oranges, Florida’s yields for orange juice have actually risen slightly compared to last year. Meanwhile, there’s still uncertainty for Southern Europe’s grape harvest, India’s mango crops, and Peru’s passion fruit output.

To learn more, speak to Chris Sanders or your account manager. Alternatively, access the latest Juice Report here.