WSJ -- Orange Juice Futures Surge [ FDA testing imported O.J. for fungicide not approved in the U.S.] ............
COMMODITIES
JANUARY 10, 2012, 3:24 P.M. ET
Orange-Juice Futures Surge
By LESLIE JOSEPHS
NEW YORKFutures of frozen orange-juice concentrate surged to a record Tuesday on news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is testing imported orange juice for a fungicide that hasn't been approved for use on oranges in the country, and saying it will order the beverage removed from the market if it poses a public health risk.
The market rallied on concerns that the presence of the fungicide could crimp supplies. Frozen orange-juice concentrate for January delivery rose 18.8 cents, or 9.7%, to settle at $2.1275 a pound, an all-time high, on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange. The more actively traded March contract jumped 20 cents, or 11%, to $2.0775.
In a letter dated Monday to the Juice Products Association, a U.S. industry group, the FDA said a juice company reported "low levels" of the fungicide carbendazim in its own juice and its competitors' products. A spokeswoman for the group said it had a phone meeting with the FDA on Tuesday and it planned to issue a statement later.
FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward said a juice company anonymously called the government agency late last month to report the presence of the fungicide.
The FDA said the fungicide was used on the 2011 orange crop in Brazil, the world's biggest producer of orange juice, to combat a mold that grows on citrus trees.
Florida oranges produce about three-quarters of U.S. orange-juice concentrate supplies, and imports cover the rest. About 75% of those imports come from Brazil.
The Environmental Protection Agency completed a preliminary risk assessment and concluded that consumption of orange juice with carbendazim at the low levels that have been reported doesn't raise safety concerns, the FDA said. The FDA won't recall the orange juice with trace amounts of the chemical.
"The FDA does not intend to take action to remove from domestic commerce orange juice containing the reported low levels of carbendazim," it said in the letter.
However, the FDA said it is conducting its own tests for carbendazim in imported orange juice in U.S. ports. "If the agency identifies orange juice with carbendazim at levels that present a public health risk, it will alert the public and take the necessary action to ensure that the product is removed from the market," the FDA said in its letter.
"We're testing everything that's coming in," Ms. Ward said. "All imported orange juice ... [is] being sampled at the port."
Ms. Ward said the U.S. doesn't have a limit for the chemical because carbendazim isn't approved for use here. The EPA risk assessment said the presence of the fungicide in juice that was reported last month was between 10 and 35 parts ber billion, according to Ms. Ward.
Write to Leslie Josephs at leslie.josephs@dowjones.com
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article misstated U.S. regulations on the fungicide carbendazim, with an FDA spokeswoman saying the current U.S. limit for the chemical is 85 parts per billion.
Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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