January 04, 2012, 10:17 AM EST

By Joe Richter

Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — Orange-juice futures jumped to a five-month high in New York after frigid weather damaged citrus crops in Florida, the world’s second-biggest grower.

Temperatures in about 75 percent of the state’s citrus- growing region were cold enough for frost, with a hard freeze in about 25 percent of the area, forecaster MDA EarthSat Weather said today in a report. Damage isn’t expected to be significant or widespread, Don Keeney, a senior agricultural meteorologist at EarthSat, said in the report.

“There’s definitely going to be some damage to the crop,” Michael Smith, the president of T&K Futures and Options in Port St. Lucie, Florida, said in a telephone interview. The frost probably will mean lower yields in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s February crop report, he said.

Orange juice for March delivery rose 2.3 percent to $1.771 a pound at 9:40 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, after gaining as much as 5 percent to $1.817, the highest for a most- active contract since Aug. 5. Prices have rallied 8.7 percent in the past two weeks.

Conditions are expected to moderate quickly after today, and freeze threats will ease as milder weather returns, according to Gaithersburg, Maryland-based MDA EarthSat.

Brazil is the world’s top orange grower.

–With assistance from Marvin G. Perez in New York. Editors: Steve Stroth, Daniel Enoch

-0- Jan/04/2012 14:32 GMT

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Richter in New York at jrichter1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Stroth at sstroth@bloomberg.net -0- Jan/04/2012 14:26 GMT