What happened to oranges in the southern USA?

[KrazyHorse]

Physicist/Investment Banking Associate please.

[ShaneWalter]

It's not going to be much of a difference, dude. Ports nowadays are incredible. If the shipment is containerized there's almost no intermodal cost either.

Seriously, how do you think you get bananas for 49 cents a pound from Guatemala etc.?

I guess you're right. It just seems odd because I've never noticed South Africa stickers on fruit before.

[KrazyHorse]

This is actually something pretty new, man. Intermodal costs have gone WAY down in the last 30 years. Containerization and the increase in size of oceangoing transport have driven unit costs down too.

You're going to be seeing more and more produce from less and less familiar places as time goes on.



The only problem is that fuel costs are probably going to keep trending up. Other than allowing civilian nuclearization of oceangoing vessels, there's not much in the way of options to fossil fuels...

[Kuciwalker]

Other than allowing civilian nuclearization of oceangoing vessels

[notyoueither]

Physicist/Investment Banking Associate please.

Accountant on steroids...

[SlowwHand]

That's such a funny picture.

[KrazyHorse]

Other than allowing civilian nuclearization of oceangoing vessels

Not cost-effective nowadays, but at some point it will be....

[KrazyHorse]

Accountant on steroids...

[SpencerH]

I dont know how to set up the video in the post so.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMOmB1q8W4Y

Accountants on steroids

[Ming]

Are more oranges consumed by eating or drinking? I don't know. I'm asking.

In a quick search online...

Virtually all of the OJ consumed in the United States contains oranges produced in Florida and Brazil; these two industry players produce half of the world’s oranges, and 95 percent of that fruit ends up as juice

I also saw a figure of 90% of all Florida oranges are used for juice. I couldn't find anything on what percent of the total world wide crop was converted to juice. However, I saw many reports also claiming that a high percentage of the oranges sold were converted to juice by the eventual end user... restaurants and consumers.

[Winston]

Israeli citrus produce

[SlowwHand]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that juice far outdistanced eating the fruit.

[Dinner]

By far, I'm sure.

[chequita guevara]

I also saw a figure of 90% of all Florida oranges are used for juice.

This.

We can't even get Florida oranges in Florida most of the time. My oranges come from California.

[Thoth]

By the way, a standard 40 foot container is rated for ~25 metric tons of cargo. In other words, total transport costs to Regina are on the order of 30 cents a kilogram, without the cost of loading/unloading the oranges from the container itself.

Now, I don't doubt this is slightly low, as oranges probably need a refrigerated hold. But overland transport is FAR more expensive than is equivalent ocean transport + intermodal costs.

While I'm not disputing your point about the cheapness of ocean transport, intermodal transport (rail and truck for final delivery) is used in land transport. Shipping via intermodal from California/Florida to Regina is a little further than from Montreal/Vancouver, but I doubt the difference in cost compares to the added costs from ocean transport, even if the ocean costs are dirt cheap.