MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's largest citrus growers group said Tuesday it was investigating reports of market dumping and would take action to counter price undercutting if necessary.

Florida Citrus Mutual, which represents 8,000 growers in Florida's $9.3 billion citrus industry, declined to immediately give further details, citing the sensitivity of the probe.

But its statement followed a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday which said the industry group was examining whether one or more Brazilian juice producers were dumping orange juice on the U.S. market.

"Florida Citrus Mutual is currently investigating reports of unusually low import prices in the market," FCM Executive Vice President and CEO Michael W. Sparks said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"We will take the appropriate action when (and) if necessary," Sparks said, without elaborating.

Orange juice futures had ended marginally higher Monday on buying by small investors as the market seemed content to consolidate in its current range for the moment, brokers said.

The May FCOJ futures contract added 1.00 cent to end at 73.75 cents per lb, moving from 71.30 to 73.95 cents.

Brazil is the world's largest orange juice exporter, shipping 1.27 million tons in the 2007/08 (Feb-Jan) season. Europe accounts for more than 60 percent of these exports, with North America accounting for only 20 percent of them, according to Brazil's Citrus Exporters Industry.

Florida growers, who supply three-quarters of the U.S. market, have frequently been at odds with their Brazilian competitors over U.S. duties on orange juice imports.

The Florida producers consider the duties necessary to protect them from competitors in Brazil, where labor and production costs are considerably lower.

(Reporting by Pascal Fletcher and Jane Sutton; Editing by John Picinich)

Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:09am EDT

Source: www.reuters.com