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The January contract of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) hit an all-time high of $4.17 per pound during the session, before falling back to $3.83 per pound. Did anyone predict $4.00 orange juice? As a comparison, the most traded contract among the soft commodities, ICE's raw sugar, had over 435,000 lots in open interest. Ibiapaba Netto, executive director at CitrusBR, the association representing Brazilian juice producers, said that a reversal of the current tight supply situation would take time, and is not certain to happen. Brazil has a 75% share of the global orange juice trade.

Persons: Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Dave Reiter, OJ, Darin Fessler, Ibiapaba Netto, Netto, greening, Marcelo Teixeira, Nick Zieminski Organizations: REUTERS, Intercontinental Exchange, Reiter Capital Investments, CitrusBR, Thomson Locations: El Nobaria, Cairo, Egypt, New York, United States, Brazil, Mexico, U.S

Ships and warehouses containing grains and sugar are seen at TIPLAM (Integrator Port Terminal Luiz Antonio Mesquita) from VLI Multimodal S.A. at Santos port, in Santos, Brazil May 25, 2023. Raw sugar is usually shipped in bulk, while refined sugar uses containers. ING analysts said some sugar shipments scheduled to depart Brazil in October will likely be pushed to November. A director at one of the largest sugar exporters in Brazil said, however, that buyers were already expecting the delays. The forecast is for only light rains in the coming days at Santos, with heavier downpours expected from Oct. 28.

Persons: Antonio Mesquita, Amanda Perobelli, Williams, Marcelo Teixeira, Jamie Freed Organizations: REUTERS, Shipping, ING, Santos, Thomson Locations: Santos, Brazil, New York

Production of the chocolate-making ingredient is expanding outside of the main growing area in West Africa as farmers in places such Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia see potential profit in the crop. The rally in prices to the highest level in nearly 50 years is boosting that trend, which could alleviate the current supply tightness in the global cocoa market. The country was once the second only to Ivory Coast in cocoa production, but a devastating fungus in the 1980's known as Witches' Broom sharply reduced production. "I believe that the new profile of cocoa production will be large-scale," said Moises Schmidt, one of the owners. "If you plant cocoa trees there (Amazon region), it is considered reforestation," said Douglas.

Persons: Schmidt Agricola, Moises Almeida Schmidt, Handout, Moises Schmidt, Jeroen Douglas, Douglas, Jose Garcia, IFAD's, Alvaro Lario, Marcelo Teixeira, Maytaal Angel, Simon Webb, Anna Driver Organizations: REUTERS, International Cocoa Organization, Reuters Graphics, Ivory, UN's, Fund for Agricultural Development, Thomson Locations: Bahia, Brazil, West Africa, Ecuador, Colombia, Africa, South America, Ivory, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Asia, United States, Europe, Guayaquil, Para, Netherlands, Medicilandia, New York, London

RenovaBio is a carbon market that gives Brazilian biofuel producers an additional revenue source. Those carbon credits are sold to fuel distributors in Brazil who have targets to cut emissions, or in a secondary market at Brazil's B3 exchange. The lawmakers in a letter to the USTR complained about the implementation in Brazil in February of an import tariff of 16% on U.S. ethanol. "Brazilian ethanol producers have access to our Renewable Fuel Standard and California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, which recognize the inherent value of low-carbon biofuels," the letter said. "This treatment is not reciprocated by Brazil, where U.S. ethanol producers, after two years, have yet to be approved for Brazil's biofuel program."

Persons: Katherine Tai, Marcelo Teixeira, Mark Porter Organizations: YORK, U.S ., Trade, Thomson Locations: Brazil, U.S, RenovaBio

The sugar and ethanol (S&E) industry, as well as international sugar traders, were widely expecting the resumption of federal taxes on gasoline and ethanol, as indicated by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad last week. "In our perspective, this measure might have negative effects on the S&E sector, as it maintains the ethanol prices below the market's forecast, while the expectation was for an increase in ethanol prices in the beginning of 2023," said Citi Research. Sugar and ethanol industry group Unica said the new administration had become "an accomplice" to the attack on the environment begun under the former administration, adding that the measure contradicts Lula's speech at the COP 27 U.N. climate meeting in November. The group said that the tax exemption was unconstitutional, since the law requires the federal government to give a tax incentive to biofuels. Mauricio Muruci, an analyst with Safras & Mercado, said fuel distributors were actively buying ethanol late last year before the expected tax return.

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