Brazil and Florida coming to blows over orange juice 'dumping' charge: US Department of...

Brazil saw its frozen orange juice exports soar last year, especially after Florida suffered a series of hurricanes. The United States will have to import a lot of Brazilian juice to make up for that. Florida growers have filed an anti-dumping suit against

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That's what's happening between the world's two largest suppliers of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ). The way Florida Citrus Mutual sees it, the Brazilians aren't just taking advantage of a US shortage to dump their product, but are trying to put the Florida citrus industry out of business.

The US Department of Commerce agreed Feb. 8 to investigate the complaint by the group and three of its members--Florida's Natural Growers in Lake Wales, A. Duda & Sons Inc. in Oviedo, and Southern Gardens Processing Corp. in Clewiston--against the largest juice processors in Brazil: Sucocitrico Cutrale Ltd., CitroSuco Paulista S.A., Louis Drey fus Citrus and Cargill Inc.

On March 3, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to pursue the case. That was after one Florida processor, Peace River Citrus Products, withdrew from the complaint--but only because it thought another Brazilian operator, Citro Vito Agro Industrial Ltd., should have been added to the list of defendants.

"Brazilian juice has been sold in the futures market at prices almost as low as before hurricane damage occurred, undermining the ability of growers and processors to recover from those devastating losses," complained Andy LaVigne, head of Florida Citrus Mutual.

The growers association charges Brazilian companies dumped orange juice in the United States during the past year at prices below both their European prices and below their costs of production. It said the "dumping margins" ranged from 37% for frozen concentrated juice to 78% for not-from-concentrate juice.

But representatives of Brazil--a huge force in the world orange juice market--say their products don't hurt their US competitors, and attributed any US losses to low-carbohydrate diet trends and last year's catastrophic hurricane season--which, they added, make imports necessary in order for the US to meet demand.

Investigators heard testimony from the two sides Jan. 19 at the ITC. The fact-finding conference marked the latest step in a heated rivalry between Florida and Brazilian citrus groups, recalling that which already led to imposition of punitive tariffs on shrimp from Asia and Latin America.