US orange crop falls to 86-year low, OJ futures hit new record

On a downtrend: A worker puts oranges in a bin at an orchard in Arcadia, Florida. The state, which has previously accounted for more than 80% of the annual US orange crop, is seen producing an 87-year low of 16.1 million boxes, down 61% on the year. — AFP

DAN Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy got rich in the 1983 movie “Trading Places” by creating a fake crop report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) saying the US orange crop would be bad, tricking the film’s antagonists into driving up orange juice (OJ) futures before it was revealed the crop was fine.

But this year, the US orange crop is anything but fine and is forecast to be the smallest since 1937.