MOGI GUACU, Brazil – Prices for orange juice have always been erratic; they rise when frost or a hurricane destroys fruit trees and fall when abundant harvests result in an excess of oranges.

But since the diseases and severe weather decimating orange groves in some of the top-producing nations are not readily fixed, the record-high prices for OJ that the globe is currently experiencing might not last long.

The biggest orange juice producer in the world, Brazil, is expected to have its poorest crop in 36 years due to drought and flooding, according to a prediction by Fundecitrus, a Sao Paulo state citrus growers’ association.

Orange Juice | AP news Image

High Orange Juice Prices May Be On The Table For A While Due To Disease And Extreme Weather

According to Mogi Guacu, Brazil, orange grower Oscar Simonetti, there is more to worry about than rising juice prices. The worry is not having the juice.

In the United States, Hurricane Ian severely devastated an already suffering crop due to an invading insect, resulting in a 62% decline in orange production in Florida’s 2022–2023 season. Spanish orange output was likewise reduced by drought the previous year.

Low supplies have driven up costs. Government statistics from April show that a 12-ounce can of frozen orange juice concentrate in the United States costs an average of $4.27, 42% more than the previous month.

Consumer research firm Nielsen reports that fresh orange juice prices in the UK, where the British Fruit Juice Association reports supplies are at 50-year lows, increased by 25% over the previous year.

Those price hikes are turning off consumers tired of inflation. Rabobank, a Dutch food and agriculture bank, reports that orange juice consumption has decreased from 15% to 25% over the past year in major worldwide markets, including the United States and the European Union.

Jonna Parker, principal for fresh food client insights at market research firm Circana, noted that more and more people are obtaining their morning fruit from smoothies, energy drinks, and other beverages than orange juice.

People think about other options when the price rises, she said.

Before the current price increases, orange juice consumption fell worldwide due to public concern about the quantity of sugar in fruit juices and rivalry with other drinks. If that tendency keeps up, Rabobank said, it should help balance supply and demand and prevent prices from growing much higher. Limited supplies, however, are expected to keep prices high for some time.

Orange juice has completely gone from the shelves in some stores.

An “orange fruit drink” with 35% orange juice replaced orange juice on the Australian McDonald’s menu late last year. The company mentioned short supplies.

Because of limited Brazilian juice supply, Tokyo-based Morinaga Milk Industry Co. plans to cease delivering its Sunkist orange juice by the end of June. Based in Sapporo, northern Japan, Megmilk Snow Brand Co. ceased shipping 1-liter (approximately a quart) and 450-milliliter (15.2-ounce) orange juice packs in April 2023. The company sells the juice under a Dole contract. Sales have yet to start up again.

Orange Juice | AP news Image

High Orange Juice Prices May Be On The Table For A While Due To Disease And Extreme Weather

A few firms are considering substituting other fruits for oranges in their goods. Citing the expense of routine orange juicing, British juice manufacturer Coldpress launched a mandarin juice product in February.

Still others, though, keep their ideas under wraps. Dole, Tropicana, Florida’s Natural, Uncle Matt’s, and Coca-Cola (which produces the Simply and Minute Maid brands) are among the big orange juice producers that either declined to comment or did not answer questions from The Associated Press.

Decades of history are at the heart of the present supply problems. When an Asian citrus psyllid invaded Florida in 2005, it injected bacteria from its saliva into the orange plants there. By damaging its root systems, the bacteria gradually destroys the tree. Once a tree is afflicted, there is no known treatment.

The effect has been devastating. Florida produced 200 million orange boxes in 2004 before the illness known as citrus greening struck the state. It will provide less than 20 million this year.

Though no orange tree is completely resistant to greening, scientists have been working to breed more tolerant trees, according to Michael Rogers, an entomology professor and head of the Citrus Research and Education Center at the University of Florida.

Though it has advanced more slowly there because of its far bigger orange orchards, citrus greening appeared in Brazil around the same time as in Florida. Rogers added that the disease is carried by insects traveling from tree to tree.

The sickness is still advancing. Fundecitrus projects citrus greening on 38% of Brazil’s orange trees by 2023. According to orange farmer Simonetti, greening affects 20% of his output. On afflicted trees, oranges ripen improperly and fall off early, lowering their juice quality, he said.

Production can only sometimes be moved to other places. Citrus psyllids, for instance, do not do well in the climate of California, where oranges are grown. However, Rogers added, California also lacks the rainfall required for juicing oranges; its oranges are often marketed for consumption.

Extreme weather is another problem that affects orange harvests and is getting more frequent as global warming is caused by climate change.

Orange Juice | AP News Image

High Orange Juice Prices May Be On The Table For A While Due To Disease And Extreme Weather

Nine heat waves that tore across Brazil last year caused reduced production and inferior fruit quality. El Niño has had especially dramatic effects this year, causing terrible floods in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul and a record drought in the Amazon.

It’s hot during the day. Nighttime brings with it a drop. Simonetti said that this temperature differential is too great for the plant.

Brazil’s 2024–2025 crop is predicted to produce 232 million boxes of oranges, a 24% decrease from the previous year.

Coordinator of Fundecitrus’ crop estimates study Vinícius Trombin commented, “We have never seen a harvest like this.”

Trombin noted that some producers are considering combining oranges and tangerines to manufacture juice to offset the expected lower output. He is dubious, though.

“The consumer wants orange juice made entirely of oranges,” he declared.

Parker of Circana is a little unsure. Blends including other fruits, in her opinion, may help keep prices down and pique customer interest in orange juice.

“The notion of many flavors is a way to stand out and is very popular,” she said. People must be kept interested. Regaining that interest is extremely difficult once it is lost.

SOURCE – (AP)

Just over a year ago, Toyota appeared to admit that it had failed to deliver on electric automobiles. Its CEO, Akio Toyoda, resigned, describing himself as “an old-fashioned” guy unqualified to lead the world’s largest automaker through the electric revolution.

However, since then, the Japanese corporation has done little to embrace a fully electric future, instead relying heavily on its massively successful hybrid vehicles, which often generate more planet-heating pollution than electric vehicles.

Toyota Is Stepping Up Its Hybrid Production As EV Sales Slow. But What Does This Signify For The Planet?

According to auto experts, the company’s hesitancy about EVs was not a mistake but rather a planned approach to offering consumers what they want. While EV sales are increasing, issues such as price, battery range, and a scarcity of charging stations are slowing the increase in demand.

Toyota’s decision to prioritize hybrids has paid off handsomely: the business is smashing its competitors, including all-electric Tesla. It sold 11.2 million vehicles worldwide last year, more than any other carmaker. A third were hybrids, while less than 1% were EVs.

Research by climate think tank InfluenceMap and a Toyota memo obtained by CNN demonstrates how hard the firm has lobbied governments worldwide to keep hybrids on the road for decades. Toyota vehemently opposes decisions in some of its most important markets, particularly the United States, that place EVs at the core of the clean-energy transportation shift.

Toyota told CNN that it shares “the objective of reducing carbon as much as possible, as soon as possible.” However, the corporation has been very critical of President Joe Biden’s administration’s EV policy, particularly its proposed rule that would compel up to two-thirds of new car sales to be EVs by the start of the next decade.

Some analysts believe Toyota’s campaigning is dragging up the EV market, and Toyota’s intentions will have far-reaching consequences for global warming. Road transportation contributes around 25% of worldwide carbon pollution. As the industry leader, Toyota’s competitors will contemplate following suit.

According to Daniel Sperling, founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, if Toyota adopted EVs sooner, it would encourage others to follow suit.

He stated, “It would put a lot more pressure on Ford or GM to move faster. “It would also pressure the EPA to move faster.”

As other automakers begin to reconsider their own EV expenditures, experts debate what role EVs and hybrids will play in the future. Those more concerned about the climate problem are asking a larger question: what does this all mean for the planet?

Which cars are the most polluting?
To determine how much global warming pollution an automobile emits, its entire life cycle must be considered, not just what comes out of the tailpipe but also what it took to construct and transport the car to the dealership.

Gas-powered automobiles, hybrids, and EVs all create nearly the same amount of pollutants in manufacturing, except for the battery.

Fully electric vehicles have enormous batteries produced from resources that require extensive mining. According to one study, on average, they emit 40% more pollution than hybrid and gas-powered vehicles.

Toyota Is Stepping Up Its Hybrid Production As EV Sales Slow. But What Does This Signify For The Planet?

However, the picture varies over their entire life cycle. Gas-powered vehicles are the cleanest to manufacture but the dirtiest during their lifespan due to significant exhaust pollution.

EVs may be the most carbon-intensive to build, but they generate the least carbon emissions over their lifetime: 40% less than gas-powered vehicles. Another study found that after around two years, the pollution savings from driving an EV offset the pollution caused during production.

Hybrids are in the middle; on average, they emit 17% more carbon pollution than EVs. However, not all hybrids are made equal.

A pure hybrid uses gasoline and stores excess energy from the brakes and, occasionally, the gas engine, making it more fuel-efficient than a standard car.

Plug-in hybrids provide the reliability and range of gas cars while emitting less pollution and using less fuel. They are also more affordable than electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids employ EV-like batteries and can normally travel 20 to 40 miles on electricity, but they also include fuel tanks and can convert to pure hybrids when the battery is low.

Some plug-in hybrids compete with EVs in terms of total life-cycle pollutants. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s 2024 rankings, Toyota’s plug-in hybrid, the Prius Prime SE, is the least polluting car on American roads, including EVs. This is due to a mix of variables, including the Prime’s weight and design, which increase fuel efficiency.

According to InfluenceMap, a climate think tank that analyzed the company’s engagement activities, Toyota has been lobbying governments for at least three years to stall the transition to all-electric vehicles. The report states that Toyota has done so in several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

In a 2022 analysis, InfluenceMap placed Toyota as the tenth most influential firm in the world opposing climate policy action out of over 400 in its database.

Toyota, other automakers, and an auto trade association strongly opposed the EPA’s proposed tailpipe rule. Two individuals familiar with the plan told CNN in February that the Biden administration is considering delaying the tough standards slated to begin in 2027 until after 2030. That would eventually cut as much pollution as the original proposal, but more gradually, resulting in more pollution in the short run.

Toyota would benefit greatly from such a delay, given that, according to Cox Automotive and Kelley Blue Book, it supplied only 1.3% of EVs in the United States last year but more than 14% of all automobiles under the Toyota and Lexus brands.

Toyota Is Stepping Up Its Hybrid Production As EV Sales Slow. But What Does This Signify For The Planet?

Toyota has publicly opposed EV objectives in numerous nations. However, a letter sent to car dealers all over the country in the fall of 2023 that CNN was able to obtain shows how determined the company is to weaken the US government’s electric vehicle laws.

In the document, Toyota Motor North America group vice president of government affairs Stephen Ciccone blasted the EPA’s EV proposal as “draconian,” stating it was bad for the environment, the country, the consumer, And the auto industry.

“Never before in the 120-year history of the US auto industry has an administration used its power more forcibly to dictate the future of the auto industry,” Ciccone said in the email, claiming the EPA’s mandate had generated an “existential crisis” in the industry.

“For more than two years, Toyota and our dealer partners have stood alone in the fight against unrealistic BEV mandates,” Ciccone stated, referring to battery electric vehicles. “We have received a lot of criticism from environmentalists, the media, and some politicians. But we haven’t—and will not—back down.”

Toyota verified the memo’s veracity but did not provide any specific comments. Some of Toyota’s shareholders are speaking out against the company’s bad climate campaigning, like the Danish pension fund AkademikerPension, which stated in a letter that Toyota was becoming “a global laggard status on climate action within the auto sector.”

“Toyota is a conservative, cautious company,” UC’s Sperling explained. “Their incrementalist approach is to support plug-in hybrids. That is their next step, and it is not disruptive to the market or the consumer. They move slowly, but they do good engineering. You look at their behavior now; in that environment, it’s not shocking.”

SOURCE – (CNN)

Tesla shares fell as much as 11% after the market started Thursday, wiping $73 billion off the company’s market worth just hours after warning of slowing growth in electric car sales and an existential threat from Chinese rivals.

In an earnings presentation Wednesday, the world’s most valuable automaker stated that its sales growth this year “may be notably lower” than last year as it proceeded to develop the “next-generation” vehicle, which is likely to be a lower-cost model.

While Tesla announced a significant 38% increase in deliveries last year compared to 2022, it had previously projected a 50% annual growth rate over several years.

Tesla Shares Plunge To Wipe Out $73 Billion In Market Value, After Dour Earnings Call

Tesla’s financial reports for the fourth quarter were likewise disappointing, with adjusted earnings per share falling 40% from a year ago and revenue rising 3% to $25 billion, falling short of market expectations.

The company fell short of analysts’ earnings forecasts for the second quarter in a row, following a streak of better-than-expected results dating back to the beginning of 2021.

The stock doubled in price during 2023, but the gains came in the first half of the year, and Tesla shares were off to a slow start in 2024, sliding 16% before Wednesday’s results announcement. The stock is trading at its lowest level since April of last year.

Thursday’s intraday losses were similar to an extraordinarily big one-day drop of 11.4% in late December 2022. At the time, investors were concerned about Tesla’s sales and profitability and the state of the US economy.

Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings also highlighted that profitability is under pressure. The company’s operating margin nearly halved to 8.2% from the same time in 2022, owing to increased costs associated with manufacturing the Cybertruck pickup. The new model began production around the end of 2023.

Tesla Shares Plunge To Wipe Out $73 Billion In Market Value, After Dour Earnings Call

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Tesla’s earnings call presented investors with “minimal answers” to the company’s declining profitability.

“We were dead wrong expecting Musk and team to step up like adults in the room on the call and give a strategic and financial overview of the ongoing price cuts, margin structure, and fluctuating demand,” he said in a note to investors on Thursday.

Threat from China
Tesla has been lowering costs for over a year to improve sales as it faces increased competition in China.

In the final three months of last year, China’s BYD outsold Tesla for the first time.

On Wednesday, Musk told analysts that Chinese carmakers were “the most competitive car companies in the world” and “will have significant success outside of China.”

“Frankly, I think if there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world,” he said.

Tesla Shares Plunge To Wipe Out $73 Billion In Market Value, After Dour Earnings Call

Rising competition from BYD and other Chinese automakers has prompted an anti-dumping probe by European officials, which could result in increased duties on Chinese car imports. Dumping is the practice of exporting goods to a country at prices that are lower than their actual cost.

Looking up?
While Tesla’s earnings were “disappointing and uncharacteristic,” Garrett Nelson, a senior equities analyst at CFRA Research, believes that releasing its lower-cost vehicle in the coming years will offer “the catalyst the stock needs,” he wrote in a note Wednesday.

Ben Barringer, a technology analyst at Quilter Cheviot, is likewise bullish. He believes the broader economic situation is beginning to swing in Tesla’s favour.

“Interest rates will start to drop. This will be a significant benefit to Tesla and the larger automotive industry, as buyers choose to finance their vehicles,” he wrote in a note Thursday.

SOURCE – CNN