Aug. 20, 2025 "Declining imports of Florida orange juice highlights changing tastes for Canadian consumers": Today I found this article by Dorcas Marfo on BNN Bloomberg:
Shipments of U.S. orange juice to Canada fell in June to their lowest in more than 20 years, according to newly released U.S. Census Bureau data, as a combination of
agricultural setbacks,
shifting consumer habits
and trade tensions
squeeze supply.
“There’s no question U.S. orange juice to Canada has slumped ... and it’s at multi-year lows,” Michael Graydon, CEO of Food, Health and Consumer Products of Canada, said in an interview with CTVNews.ca.
“It hasn’t been just one single cause. It’s kind of a collision of
tight global supply,
changing consumer preferences,
and more recently, the tariff overhang in North America.”
Florida, traditionally a major supplier of fresh orange juice,
has seen its crop shrink dramatically over the last two decades,
due to citrus greening disease,
blight and repeated storm damage,
according to Graydon.
Output this year alone is down more than a third compared to last year,
Graydon noted, with little sign of a quick recovery.
Graydon said Canada has looked to Brazil as the next major source but
weather
and disease
have reduced production there as well,
limiting export availability.
With supply constrained,
prices have climbed
— and it’s affecting how Canadians shop.
Graydon said per capita orange juice consumption in North America has dropped significantly over the past 20 years,
as breakfast habits have shifted
and health-conscious consumers have grown more cautious about sugar intake.
Adding to the pressure is the ongoing trade dispute between Canada and the U.S. Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs on certain American products,
including a 25 per cent duty on unfrozen Florida orange juice, have pushed prices higher.
While the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) exempts many cross-border goods, some key grocery staples — including orange juice — remain subject to duties, raising costs for retailers and consumers alike.
Industry analysts like Graydon warn that the impact of these tariffs is being felt more in Canada than in the U.S.
Graydon said the measures have had minimal impacts on the U.S. economy,
but are contributing to food inflation here.
“You can’t take an economy that’s 10 per cent of the U.S. economy and expect our retaliatory tariffs to have any impact.”
Only a few sectors, including Kentucky bourbon, have had “damaging impact” in the U.S., Graydon said.
Packaging materials
and imported ingredients
that don’t have Canadian-made alternatives
are also caught by the counter-tariffs,
increasing manufacturing costs,
Graydon said.
Some suppliers who initially absorbed the expense in hopes of a quick resolution are now passing those costs along to the shoppers, he added.
Metro’s latest earnings report noted an uptick in pricing requests tied to tariff impacts.
The result on store shelves is a combination of
higher prices
and fewer deals.
“In the short term, expect continued instability at retail -
fewer promotions,
less volume
and higher prices,”
Graydon said.
Importing from other potential countries is possible,
but the cost of transportation makes it less feasible,
Graydon explained, using Spain as an example.
He said both Florida and Brazil are prioritizing domestic customers over exports,
further tightening supply for Canada.
Consumers are responding by shifting to alternatives such as
shelf-stable juice blends that are often cheaper than fresh, refrigerated varieties,
Graydon observed. He warned that the trend is also reducing choice.
“Supply isn’t just constrained.
It’s complex and prices are heading further upward,
unless the trade environment stabilizes,”
he said.
Canadian shoppers ‘vote with their wallets’
Eric Wickham, who worked on the Hoser Grocery Tracker project, which helped customers find the most affordable groceries in the Greater Toronto Area, notes shopping behaviours are shifting.
“Unless you survey all of Canada, you can’t really get a sentiment of whether or not they like orange juice anymore,” he said to CTVNews.ca. “But I can say Canadians definitely have had a tendency to vote with their wallet in the past.”
Wickham referenced the 2024 nationwide boycott of Loblaw, sparked by soaring grocery prices.
Pricing data suggests the cost of orange juice hasn’t increased dramatically.
Statistics Canada reports that the average retail price for
two litres of orange juice in June 2025
is only about 30 cents higher than in June 2024.
Wickham explained that disruptions in the supply chain
– especially for products imported from, or processed in, the U.S –
do eventually ripple down to consumers.
Whether offset in price,
incurred by retailers to protect margins
or shifted onto shoppers directly,
he said supply chain costs inevitably influence retail pricing.
For Wickham, the driving force behind Canadians shunning U.S. orange juice reflects broader discontent.
“I really do think this is brought about by all this
‘Buy Canadian’
and avoiding American products,”
he said, suggesting shoppers still remember the geopolitical tension, threats to sovereignty and trade disputes since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.
Tariffs and inflation squeeze grocery budgets
The squeeze on Canada’s orange juice supply comes at a time when grocery prices are already climbing faster than overall inflation.
According to Loblaw’s July Food Inflation Report,
Canada saw a 2.8 per cent year-over-year increase in food prices in June 2025
- slower than May’s 3.3 per cent rise,
but still outpacing overall inflation.
Lower prices for fresh vegetables, which dropped 3.1 per cent, brought some relief for consumers during the summer months.
However, tariffs remain a major driver of rising food costs.
Loblaw notes that about one-third of all inflation-related cost increases submitted by suppliers are tied directly to tariffs.
The report suggests the impact is twofold:
Canadian counter-tariffs on U.S. food imports raise grocery prices directly,
while U.S. tariffs on packaging and ingredients like spices and proteins - used by manufacturers selling in Canada - further inflate costs.
For now, the once-common glass of Florida orange juice at the Canadian breakfast table may be a rarer sight - not because it’s unavailable, but because it’s become an increasingly costly choice.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tariffs/2025/08/20/canadian-orange-juice-imports-hit-two-decade-low-amid-supply-woes-tariffs-changing-tastes/
Jan. 30, 2026 "So long, frozen juice from concentrate. The once-popular canned drink leaves shelves this year": Today I found this article by Jenna Benchetrit on CBC:
Attention, lemonade stand vendors: You'll have to squeeze the fresh stuff this summer.
Minute Maid is discontinuing its line of frozen juices as consumer demand declines and tastes change,
and it may have been the only company still selling the concentrated products into the Canadian market.
The brand's
frozen canned orange juice,
lemonade,
Fruitopia fruit punch
and Five Alive juice blend
will be discontinued by April,
a spokesperson for parent company Coca-Cola confirmed to CBC News.
The company is leaving the frozen can category in both Canada and the U.S. "in response to shifting consumer preferences," the spokesperson said, as it focuses on products that "better match" what its customers want.
While it's certainly the biggest, Coca-Cola isn't the only juice maker shifting priorities.
The combination of Coca-Cola's withdrawal, less than a year after another major Canadian juice producer did the same, could functionally mean Canadians will be unable to purchase frozen concentrated juice, after decades of availability.
Lassonde, a Canadian company behind juice labels like Oasis, Kiju and Rougemont, told CBC News that it left the category last year after demand for frozen-from-concentrate juice waned.
In addition to its own brands, Lassonde manufactures products for grocers like Sobeys, Metro, Loblaw and Walmart.
It also owns and previously produced Old South frozen-from-concentrate orange juice in Canada.
Old South, along with the store brands for Canada's largest retailers, were confirmed as unavailable for purchase at multiple retailers.
When both flagship brand names and generic competitors exit the market,
"it sends a clear signal that the problem is not
branding
or pricing,
but that the product has very low market demand,"
said Zhe Zhang, an assistant professor of marketing at Western University's Ivey Business School.
"Even the most basic version of the product is no longer going to be sustainable in the marketplace. It really indicates that the product is approaching the end of its lifecycle."
Why consumers aren't feeling juicy
Frozen juice from concentrate was invented during the Second World War,
when food scientists were tasked with improving food and beverage quality for American soldiers.
But it was a Bing Crosby-Minute Maid partnership in the late 1940s that transformed the product into a household staple and a moneymaker.
Fast-forward nearly 80 years, and the consumer's taste for juice — frozen or otherwise — just isn't what it was, according to Emma Balment, the Toronto-based director of market strategy and understanding at Ipsos, a market research firm.
Juice brands are losing what beverage analysts refer to as "share of throat."
But the cold and canned are bearing the brunt of that loss.
"Out of all of the cups of juice that Canadians are consuming, only about seven per cent is from frozen concentrate,"
Balment told CBC News, noting that it's the smallest and least profitable juice subcategory.
As other beverage makers get more innovative, frozen juice has largely stayed the same, she added. That's just one of the trends that has weighed on the juice industry in recent years.
Canadians are drinking more tap water now than they did a decade ago;
parents are more sensitive to their children's sugar intake;
and the functional beverage market — which includes drinks that promise some kind of health benefit (e.g. kombucha or prebiotic soda)
— have become increasingly popular, according to Balment.
"For people who want a cool, refreshing, fruity flavour, that's where all of the emerging new drinks are playing in. So juice is particularly targeted," she said.
Discontinued products 'an opportunity'
Over the last few years, several well-known food brands have disappeared from Canadian shelves
— like Yves Veggie Cuisine
and Delissio Pizza,
both sold in Canada
but owned by parent companies operating in the U.S.
"When you have less choices for consumers, that's always an issue,"
said Gary Sands, senior vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.
Smaller grocers "have to differentiate,"
said Sands, adding that it would be difficult for an independent to develop its own generic product line to fill a void, like the one left by Minute Maid frozen juices, for example.
"When we're looking at multinational companies discontinuing the line of products in Canada, I think the way we have to look at it now is the glass being half-full and not half-empty of orange juice here," he said.
"When product lines like this disappear,
it does offer an opportunity to small and medium-sized Canadian companies to enter a market or to [develop] a product line."
A nostalgic drink
For some Canadians, the drink is nostalgic. The cans are an ingredient, for example,
in "slush" — a cocktail of
frozen juice concentrate,
sugar
and booze
that is prepared in a bucket and popular among Newfoundlanders at Christmastime.
"Aw, we'll have to change our slush recipe!" said Jenna Hopkins, who spoke to CBC News outside a grocery store in St. John's. "We have to figure out something new to use. That's so sad."
Marilyn O'Grady reckoned she would have to change her slush recipe, too: "I guess I could use fresh juice. I'd have to, right? Maybe not quite the same."
Elsewhere, the end of frozen juice might get overlooked. Munther Zeid, the owner of grocery store Food Fare in Winnipeg, said he's suspected for a while the drink would be discontinued.
"It's been a dying category for a few years now," he said.
"I don't think anybody's even going to notice that it's gone."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/minute-maid-discontinuing-frozen-juice-9.7065520
My opinion: I hardly ever drink juice. I did a lot as a kid and teen when I packed my lunch for school.
I mainly drink coffee (with sugar or hot chocolate powder, and milk) and water.
