Orange Juice

The frozen concentrate contract, an old small market now defined by disease and hurricanes.

Overview

ICE frozen concentrated orange juice trades 15,000 pound contracts in New York, the market made famous by the movie Trading Places. Florida once defined supply, with hurricanes and freezes pricing the market, but citrus greening disease gutted Florida output by more than two thirds from its 1990s peak, and Brazil, the top grower, now sets the marginal supply, so Sao Paulo weather and flowering move New York. Not from concentrate juice dominates retail, so futures track a shrinking physical base, pinning volatility higher. Hurricanes still spike it, as in 2024, and fund positioning against tiny deliverable stocks has produced legendary squeezes.