One of the defining characteristics of mature consumer markets is not simply the abundance of products, but the quality of consumer decision-making. Across sectors, rising financial awareness, easier access to information and digital discovery are changing what people choose to buy and how they
Imagine reaching retirement with a bond portfolio that works like a staircase. One bond matures this year, another next year, and another the year after, giving you access to money at different points instead of having to unlock the entire investment at once
Augmont Enterprises IPO Day 2: The initial public offering (IPO) of integrated gold and silver platform Augmont Enterprises Ltd is witnessing its second day of bidding today, August 24. So far, the public issue has been subscribed 2.88 times. The Rs 825-crore IPO
Gold prices remain high in India; check 22K, 24K rates in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru International gold prices also climbed to a more than three-month high on Monday. Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 13:46:24 IST By HT News Desk Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Gold prices remained high in India on
Businesses from India and the U.S. have expressed interest in investing in Bangladesh and made proposals to improve the country's investment climate, Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir has said. Mr. Muktadir’s remarks on Saturday (August 22
The £5.30 orange juice that shows why UK supermarket prices are sky-high
The £5.30 orange juice that tells the story of why supermarket prices are sky high
There has been more than a bitter twang in the glasses at British breakfast tables. Only five years ago, a typical supermarket own-label carton of orange juice could be bought for 76p for 1 litre. It now costs £1.79.
That's a rise of 134% since 2020, and it's up 29% just in the past year.
In cafes and restaurants it's a similar story - with £3.50 to £4 now a standard price point for a glass of basic OJ.
One colleague was outraged to be sent a bill for £9 for a glass of hangover-busting orange juice and lemonade at an unassuming little restaurant in Kent. Asked why so much, she was told that the orange juice - albeit freshly squeezed - accounted for £5.30 of the price.
Yet as costs have surged, the taste is changing too, with certain manufacturers substituting oranges for mandarins to cut costs.
The public is, if you like, being freshly squeezed.
There are all sorts of reasons for this: disease among crops, extreme weather, over-reliance on supply from a single nation, new rules for packaging and complexities around trade wars and Brexit.
All of this is compounded by grocery price inflation which, after hitting 17.5% in 2023, came down (to around 5.7% in August) but is rising once again. New figures for overall inflation will be released later today.
It is a perfect storm.
Yet the problem is not isolated to orange juice - track the prices of all sorts of other groceries in supermarket aisles and you'll see a similar pattern. And so understanding what has happened to orange juice offers a glimpse into how our overall grocery bills suddenly seem so expensive.
It all prompts the question: is this storm a passing one, or are prices set to remain stubbornly high - and should brace for them staying that way permanently?
Where else to start but in the orange groves of Florida where the industrialisation of OJ began as an initiative of the US Army during World War Two.
The US government was seeking a source of transportable Vitamin C for troops that didn't taste like turpentine.
Orange juice is nearly 90% water. So gently evaporating the water off the juice and freezing the concentrate, allowed for transportability of a much better tasting product when water was later re-added.
WW2 ended before the troops got to try it, but it ended up being commercialised by what became the American soft drink giant, Minute Maid.
It was popularised by Bing Crosby, who, as a significant shareholder, would sing in ads and radio show jingles about frozen orange juice being "better for your health".
Western consumption of orange juice surged.
Flash forward to today and an estimated 2.5 billion gallons of orange juice are drunk each year - with about a tenth of that in the UK, where the market is still growing.
At an industrial unit in the Essex town of Basildon, green steel drums of frozen orange concentrate arrive from Brazil, overseen by Maxim McDonald.
His firm Gerald McDonald and Co is named after his grandfather, a pioneer who was importing orange concentrate as far back as the 1940s from what was then British-mandate Palestine.
Today it produces juices and blends them, then sells them to supermarkets and restaurant suppliers.
But prices reached extraordinary heights in global markets, rising from $1(75p) to $1.50 (£1.12) per lb over the last decade, to a record $5.30 per lb by the end of last year.
This followed five years of poor crops, owing to severe drought and a disease called citrus greening (caused by a bacteria spread by insects). Brazil had its worst crop since 1988. In some parts of its citrus belt, two thirds of orange trees are affected.
"Around September of last year the price shot up to crazy levels," Maxim tells me. "At the worst time I was being offered $7 a kilo.
For such a major commodity to go from $2 to $7 is insane, but it took a while to filter through to consumers.
Until 2023 the rise in orange juice prices was disguised among food inflation in general, explains Philip Coverdale, an industry expert at consultancy firm GlobalData.
Producers have tried to look beyond South America but it's not easy - the supply of oranges has been sown up by Brazil, even more so than, say, the Saudis have cornered the market for crude oil.
Morocco, Egypt and South Africa grow oranges too but their supplies are more limited. Spain also grows them, but Valencia and Seville oranges are mostly exported as fruit, rather than concentrate. (Plus Spain too suffered from weather-related production slumps, including the floods in Valencia last October.)
Even within Brazil the market is concentrated in the hands of huge industrialised conglomerates.
In a truly competitive market the price would settle again - but it hasn't, nor does the industry expect it to. This is a phenomenon that is common to many other ordinary groceries too whose prices have risen.
Florida is the other traditional exporter of oranges, but output from the Sunshine State over the past year has been the lowest since the Great Depression, amid a high number of hurricanes and long-term problems caused by citrus greening.
One problem with greening is that it reduces sugar content, making oranges less sweet.
"Not many are buying Florida oranges any more unless it is a requirement to label the juice 'Florida Orange'," says Maxim McDonald.
It's very difficult to get oranges out of Florida [because of the shortages] and it's too expensive.
One of the leading suppliers to Tropicana sold off some of its land earlier this year to build homes.
Tropicana itself, the marquee US brand for orange juice, had to restructure its debts this year. Pepsi has also sold most of its stake in it.
One of Tropicana's recent product innovations in the US has been to launch an "essentials" brand of orange juice "blends" - combining orange, apple and pear juice - at a lower price.
Similar trends can be seen on British shelves. Orange is being mixed with mango, mandarins and clementine juice. Mango purée is especially cheap right now, driven by a good harvest in India. Mandarin concentrate, meanwhile, is cheaper than its orange equivalent because there is less demand for it.
These developments save money, but also maintain the traditional sweetness of the taste.
Then there is the added impact of the recent spike in trade tensions with the US since President Trump introduced new tariffs.
Oranges, it transpires, have been at the centre of it.
US exports of orange juice to Canada have slumped to a 20-year low after Canada put counter-tariffs on US exports. The former PM Justin Trudeau warned that Canadians might have to "forgo Florida orange juice".
The Trump administration has also settled on a 10% tariff on orange juice coming from Brazil, which will feed into US supermarket prices.
In 2024, the UK eliminated tariffs on some imports produced from fruit grown outside Britain. But tariffs on certain sweeter, cheaper varieties and blends were not part of this.
And while the tariff cuts might have helped, they were vastly outweighed by the increase in the underlying price.
Then there are new regulations around packaging, further adding to the pressures.
The rules, known as Extended Producer Responsibility, are aimed at improving recycling rates, with a weight-based fee. All juice producers will be impacted, especially those still using glass bottles.
In August a Bank of England report said that high food price inflation is driven partly - and among other things - by these regulations.
In Brazil, the orange harvest has recovered somewhat - this is the greatest hope for a return to normal prices. Yet it coincides with sinking demand: global consumption of orange juice is now down 30% from a peak two decades ago.
Though this may be partly down to the high prices, in certain parts of the world there has also been a shift in perception about the sugar content and health benefits or otherwise of fruit juice.
"When young children are not regularly given juice from an early age, they are less likely to be regular juice drinkers in later years," suggests Philip Coverdale at GlobalData.
Demand is increasing in countries with growing middle classes, such as China, South Africa, and India. But elsewhere other more exotic fruit juices such as mango, pear and pomegranate are growing in popularity.
Ultimately, however, orange juice is a staple that supermarkets have long been used to selling at low prices. And the price spikes to £2 a carton could, with for example better weather, simply reverse.
The volatility in the harvest appears to have reduced," says Giles Hurley, UK CEO of Aldi, "Our buying team are doing everything they can to ensure that that saving is passed on to consumers.
Others in the supply chain are less convinced, given that much of the frozen concentrate was bought at last year's high prices. Plus, the stranglehold of the small number of giant producers who control the market remains.
As for the citrus greening, some major commercial producers, including Coca-Cola, which owns Minute Maid and Innocent, have contributed to a project to Save the Orange, using artificial intelligence to find a way to combat it.
It's a long-term project - and even if fruitful, it may be some time before the effect - if at all - filters through to grocery bills.
But the story of orange prices does also show how an upward price shock gets transmitted around the world far more quickly than a downward one.
Oranges are not the only food that has seen a price spike, of course. The price of beef and veal is up almost 25% in a year. Butter is up almost 19%, and chocolate and coffee 15% and milk over 12%, all according to the Office for National Statistics.
This all suggests that, more generally, there may be something else at play. And that for all the food and drink spikes, the consumer was actually protected from the worst of it for a period - and now it is pay back time.
"It might be the retailers didn't full pass through the cost increase in the first place and therefore it's a way of recouping some of the margin they would otherwise have got," says Steve McCorriston, Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Exeter.
Ultimately, though, trying to unpick the precise reason for why our food and drink costs what it does is very difficult - other factors that influence price can go undetected.
What we don't know much about is how these supply chains tend to work in practice. It's difficult to uncover relationships between retailers and manufacturers or farmers and the use of contracts.
There is also a broader question that goes well beyond orange juice: do consumers in the UK need to simply accept the fact that as a densely populated small country with limited agriculture, a changing climate means the UK will be increasingly exposed to food price shocks?
A 2024 government report on food security noted: "The UK continues to be highly dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruit, vegetables and seafood...
Many of the countries the UK imports these foods from are subject to their own climate-related challenges and sustainability risks.
And so it could be that this is only the start of a wild ride on what we pay for our food and drink.
Top image credits: Daniel Grizelj/ Tetra Images/ Getty Images
BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.
Source: BBC
Related Posts: Bussiness
Minimalistic retractable door handles became a signature feature of electric vehicles (EVs), but the controversial designs are now at the centre of China's biggest car recall, affecting more than 4 million vehicles. The recall, which includes 2.98 million Chinese-made Teslas
12 hours ago
Tempsens Instruments India IPO Day 3: The initial public offering (IPO) of temperature sensing and heating solutions provider Tempsens Instruments Ltd is witnessing its final day of bidding today, August 24. So far, the public issue has been subscribed by a strong 31.34 times. The Rs 650-crore IPO
12 hours ago
S&P 500 just hit a level seen only once before in 155 years — could a market crash be next? The S&P 500 CAPE ratio hit 40 for only the second time in 155 years, raising concerns about valuations, future returns and a possible market correction. Updated on: Aug 23, 2026
15 hours ago
Anthropic $2 trillion IPO: Why investors think it could be worth more than SpaceX Anthropic could reach a $2 trillion IPO valuation as revenue surges, raising questions about whether the AI company can be worth more than SpaceX. Published on: Aug 23, 2026
15 hours ago
US President Donald Trump has said Canada wants "the benefits of being a State, without being one" after trade talks between the two countries collapsed late on Friday. In his first comments since negotiations broke down, triggering new 50% US tariffs on a range of Canadian goods
1 days ago
India’s payments sector has raised $5.8 billion across 371 equity funding rounds since January 2021, while producing eight initial public offerings (IPOs) and triggering 25 acquisitions, as the industry increasingly consolidates around a handful of well-funded players
1 days ago
Can Reddit survive in the AI era? It wants more cash for its data—and more of people’s time Published on: Aug 22, 2026, 16:40:48 IST The Economist Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Earlier this summer “Backrooms”, a horror flick, became one of the most successful independent films ever
1 days ago
What with a 250th birthday, Taylor Swift's wedding and the football World Cup, Americans could be forgiven for taking their eye off the ball this summer. But signs of economic trouble have been building. This week they hit the headlines when US national debt passed the $40tn (£29.4tn) mark
1 days ago
Insurance regulator IRDAI has directed Edelweiss Life Insurance and Pramerica Life Insurance, in separate orders on August 20, not to open new place of business for six months for non-compliance with Expenses of Management (EoM) limits in 2024-25
2 days ago
India remains a very attractive destination for global investments and its economic fundamentals form the basis for strong investor confidence, Jyoti Jeetun, the Minister of Financial Services and Economic Planning of Mauritius told The Hindu in an interview
2 days ago
A fresh wave of US tariffs on a wide array of Canadian goods has come into effect as of midnight on Saturday after a last minute break down in trade talks. Announcing the suspension of negotiations shortly before the Friday night deadline, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he would impose
2 days ago
TCS Employee Surveillance Row: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services company, on Friday denied reports that it is using monitoring tools to track individual employee activity on company-issued laptops. The IT giant said the purpose of the tools is to monitor the overall
2 days ago
Walmart stock falls 9% as retailer finally brings Apple Pay, Google Pay Walmart stock fell 9% after earnings despite beating estimates and raising guidance. The retailer will add Apple Pay and Google Pay Tap to Pay from August 24. Updated on: Aug 21, 2026
2 days ago
TikTok has agreed to pay $400m (£293m) to the US to end a lawsuit alleging its platform violated children‘s privacy, marking one of the largest ever settlements over the issue. The deal stems from a 2024 suit by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden alleging TikTok and its
2 days ago
What’s next for Nvidia after the AI chip boom? Wall Street wants more—here’s what investors need to know Nvidia stock faces high expectations ahead of August 26 earnings as Wall Street watches AI growth, valuation, open-source models and Nvidia's next big story. Updated on: Aug 22, 2026
2 days ago
Costco dividend rises: Why a $10,000 investment pays only $61 yearly A $10,000 Costco investment earns only about $61 a year in regular dividends. Here’s why investors still buy COST for growth and special dividends. Updated on: Aug 20, 2026
3 days ago
Leaving education, getting a job, buying a home and perhaps starting a family: the path previous generations followed may seem a distant dream to many now. But is it getting a bit easier - at least when it comes to getting on the housing ladder? Today's prospective first-time buyers may well feel
3 days ago
Nearly six months after US President Donald Trump vowed a swift victory over Iran, the conflict appears to be at a standstill, with prospects of a military victory or negotiated settlement growing dimmer. To break the deadlock, Trump has vowed an "economic D-Day" under which any country that does
3 days ago
Why US stocks fell today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq drop as oil and bond yields rise US stocks fell as oil prices and Treasury yields rose. Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped as Trump's Iran threat, Walmart and the bond market hit Wall Street. Published on: Aug 20, 2026
3 days ago
Crypto stocks surge as Trump backs Clarity Act: Coinbase, Circle, miners rise Crypto stocks surge as Trump backs the Clarity Act. Coinbase, Circle, Bitcoin miners and other crypto shares rise as investors expect clearer US crypto rules. Updated on: Aug 20, 2026
4 days ago
Stock Market Today, August 20: The domestic equity market snapped its seven-day losing streak and ended sharply higher on Thursday, August 20, as broad-based buying lifted sentiment across sectors after the US Treasury stepped in to contain the surge in global bond yields
4 days ago
The Reserve Bank of India RBI has accorded its approval to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for acquiring an aggregate holding of up to 9.99% of the paid-up share capital or voting rights in HDFC Bank Ltd., the bank said in a filing with the exchanges on Wednesday (August 19, 2026) night
4 days ago
Customers have shared their outrage after an app used by many businesses to track timesheets and produce invoices hiked bills by as much as 1500%, with one person calling it "daylight robbery". Richard Haldenby, head of UK consultancy firm Salentis
4 days ago
Bitcoin Price Today, August 20: Bitcoin surged to the $70,000 mark on Thursday, recording one of its sharpest gains in recent months as a combination of lower US Treasury yields, a weaker dollar, strong institutional demand and large-scale short liquidations pushed the broader cryptocurrency market
4 days ago
US President Donald Trump has said he will launch tougher economic measures against Iran, as well as any country and that helps or does business with the country. He wrote in all capital letters on Truth Social that he was launching "the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any
4 days ago
The domestic equity markets were trading firmly higher on Thursday, August 20, with buying visible across large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap stocks. The gains strengthened through the session, with the benchmark Sensex rising more than 600 points by 1:20 pm
4 days ago
U.S. President Donald Trump will host cryptocurrency executives at the White House on Wednesday as U.S. financial regulators this week prepare to advance their framework for certain digital assets. Trump, who has earned more than $1.4 billion from his family’s crypto ventures
4 days ago
