Orange-Juice Futures Slip Ahead of Sales Data; Cocoa, Arabica Rise

Leslie Josephs

  NEW YORK-Orange-juice concentrate futures fell to a one-week low Monday ahead of U.S. sales

figures that have been showing a decline in demand for the once-popular breakfast beverage.

  Orange juice for delivery in September fell as low as $1.4245 a pound on the on ICE Futures U.S.

exchange, trading recently at $1.4660 a pound, down 1.1% on the day.

  The lower prices reflect how falling U.S. demand for orange juice has countered forecasts showing

Florida growers reaping their smallest crop next season since the mid-1960s. A bacterial disease has

ravaged groves in Florida, the source of most of the oranges used in U.S. juice.

  Last week, French trading conglomerate Louis Dreyfus Commodities forecast that Florida would

produce 96.6 million boxes of oranges in the year beginning Oct. 1, according to traders and

industry participants. That would be a 7.5% drop from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's final

2013-14 estimate of 104.4 million boxes--the lowest output in 29 years. If the 2014-15 crop comes in

as Louis Dreyfus has forecast, it would be the lowest production since 1965-66, when Florida's

output was 95.9 million boxes. Each box weighs 90 pounds.

  Elizabeth Steger, an independent forecaster, put Florida's crop at 89 million boxes, which would

be the smallest production since 1964-65. The first USDA orange-production forecast for the next

crop year won't be released until October.

  While the crops have been shrinking, U.S. retail sales for the beverage have been dropping due to

greater competition in the juice aisle and higher prices.

  The Florida Department of Citrus, a state agency, said it will release a monthly Nielsen

retail-sales data report around 1 p.m. EDT.

  In other markets, cocoa futures hit a fresh more than three-year high as cocoa-butter prices

continued to climb. The substance is extracted from cocoa beans and gives chocolate candy its creamy

texture when eaten, and the higher prices point to a rise in chocolate demand, analysts have said.

  In the week ended Aug. 15, cocoa butter on the eastern U.S. was trading at $8,594 a ton, about 40%

higher than at the same point a year ago, according to data from the Cocoa Merchants Association of

America, a trade group.

Cocoa for December delivery was up 0.4% at $3,257 a ton.

  Arabica coffee for December was up 0.4% at $1.9395 a pound, near a two-week high. Raw sugar for

October was down 0.3% at 15.88 cents a pound. December cotton was down 0.5% at 64.06 cents a pound.