Orange juice futures eased on Tuesday, following its first weekly rise in three weeks, as the market awaited further news regarding a banned fungicide in juice imports.   

On Friday, the citrus market rallied on supply concerns a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had turned down a request to change its acceptable levels of carbendazim, a
fungicide commonly used in the Brazilian orange juice industry.

Benchmark May frozen concentrated orange juice edged down 0.6 cents to close at $1.8045 per lb, trading from $1.7650 to $1.8225. 

The nearby March contract ended down 1.45 cent at $1.8635 a lb, following a 1.5 percent rally on Friday after the FDA news.   

The FDA's decision will likely force Brazil, the world's top OJ producer, to stop exporting concentrated orange juice to the United States.   

Traders said that with retail demand stagnant, there seemed little anxiety in the market over the Brazilian imports.

The market has lost around a fifth of its value since the March contract hit an all-time high of $2.2695 on Jan. 23 due to speculation of a U.S. ban on Brazilian juice imports.   

Brazil will still be able to ship its U.S. customers orange juice that is not from concentrate, since that variety contains much smaller levels of carbendazim.   

Industry sources said Brazil could resume frozen juice concentrates shipments to the United States by the end of 2012.

Investors have been reducing their exposure in the juice market. Open interest, an indicator of investor presence, has dropped by more than 10 percent to 22,098 lots as of Friday versus its peak in mid-January, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.   

Volume on Tuesday totaled a busy 5,719 lots late in New York business, more than doubled its 30-day average, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.   

On Friday, the exchange said 7,168 lots changed hands, its highest level since October 2011.