While still mired in negative territory, sales of Florida's signature citrus commodity have juiced up in recent months.
Retail sales of orange juice at major U.S. supermarkets for the four-week period ending July 4 fell 5.3 percent on an average price of $6.61 per gallon, a 3.1 percent hike from a year earlier, according to the Florida Department of Citrus.
While not yet generating fireworks, OJ's performance in recent months has shown a marked improvement from the beginning of the 2014-15 season in October. Sales fell at an 8 percent to 9 percent rate in the first five months of 2014-15, reaching a season-high drop of 10 percent in the period ending Feb. 14.
In three of the past four months, OJ sales have dropped by 6 percent or less. The outlier was the April period, in which they fell by 8.7 percent.
Still, Citrus Department officials are not declaring victory.
"It is too early to consider this a trend. We will continue to monitor retail sales," said Marisa Zansler, director of economic and market research for the Bartow-based state agency charged with promoting Florida citrus products.
Caution is warranted as the recently improved performance has not moved the needle much on seasonal OJ sales.
They've fallen by 7.6 percent through July 4 on an average price increase of 4.7 percent.
Florida provides more than 70 percent of the OJ consumed in the U.S. annually.
