Merger creates world’s biggest orange juice company

Brazil’s anti-trust division (“Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica – Cadê”) has approved the merger of Citrosuco/Fischer and Citrovita, which will create an orange juice company with a 25% share of the world market and 45% of the Brazilian market (Cutrale, Brazil’s second biggest orange juice maker, has 35% of the Brazilian market).

The new company will own seven factories, eight port terminals and five ships, not to mention farms, orchards and industrial installations in Brazil and abroad.

Citrosuco/Fishcer dates back to the 1930s, when a German immigrant, Carl Fischer, began working with oranges. In 1963, after a partnership deal with an American producer in Florida, Pasco, it began producing orange juice and never stopped. Later, Fischer bought out Pasco and other German partners, setting up Citrosuco and building one of the world’s most modern transportation network for concentrated orange juice.

Citrovita is owned by a huge Brazilian conglomerate, Votorantim.