NEW YORK: Orange juice futures closed Friday at a fresh three-month low on late sales by small speculators, and the market could see further losses in the weeks ahead given the lack of bullish leads for citrus contracts, dealers said.
The key May frozen concentrated orange juice slipped 0.20 cent to finish at $1.662 per lb, the lowest settlement for the spot contract since December 22, 2011, according to Thomson Reuters Data.
On the week, the juice market fell 11.07 percent. It was the biggest percentage loss for juice since mid-November, the Thomson Reuters data showed.
Volume traded on Friday hit just under 900 lots, some two thirds below the 30-day norm, ICE Futures US data showed.
Country Hedging Inc analyst Sterling Smith said juice futures were consolidating around its current level.
Traders said most participants were keeping an eye on growing conditions in the major producing state ofFlorida.
The frost season is over and the threat of storms that normally comes with the Atlantic hurricane season is more than two months away. Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
Traders saidFlorida's upcoming 2012/13 citrus harvest may top the 147 million (90-lb) boxes of juiceFloridareaped in 2011/12, especially if no storm hits the citrus belt in theSunshineStatethis year.
Juice futures had rallied to record highs above $2 a lb in late January after theUnited Statessaid it found a prohibited fungicide in imports of Brazilian juice, which accounts for half of all imports and around 10 percent ofUSjuice supplies.
The US Food and Drug Administration conducted tests and excluded some shipments, but fears of a supply crunch have abated since there are more than enoughUSsupplies for the domestic juice market.
Open interest, an indicator of investor exposure in the market, stood at 20,681 lots as of March 22, Thomson Reuters data showed.
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