As recently as the 1930s, oranges were expensive and bought only during the holidays as gifts to one's most beloved family members. Thankfully, advances in global enterprise have made oranges a common fruit around the world, and a certain South American country that pioneered this change is also the top producer of oranges today.

Brazil’s “Citric Belt” region — which consists of a majority of São Paulo and west Minas Gerais — grows an annual average of over 30% of the total global orange output. This country is responsible for most of the 18,400,000 tons of oranges grown worldwide in 2020, and Brazil is also the largest exporter of orange juice in the world.

Brazil has a hot climate and 63.5 million hectares of farmland, both of which aid in its orange output, but the fruit traveled a long way to eventually become a Brazilian icon in the 1900s. Story Maps claims that all citrus fruits are native to the Southeast Himalayan foothills in India and the northern Myanmar and western Yunnan of China.