The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture has forcast an orange crop of 327.8 million boxes for the 2013-14 season, following surveys by the National Supply Company (Conab).

A government report said there would be around 16.2 million boxes of losses or of little economic significance.

The losses were mainly attributed to economic issues, representing 64% of the cause in the government's view, followed by weather (40%), pesticides (34%) and inadequate fertilization (15%).

The juice industry will absorb 85% (279.1 million boxes) of the total, while the surplus (48.7 million boxes) will go to market as fresh fruit.

An average yield of 660 boxes per hectare is expected with the peak harvest between September and November.

Sao Paulo represents 70% of orange production in Brazil, the world's largest grower of the fruit.

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