Spring 2010 Edition
From the desk of Ken Shull
There have been many meetings and much information
distributed about the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and
Huanglongbing (HLB) at the federal, state and local levels.
HLB is the regreening bacterial disease that some psyllids may carry,
and if an infected psyllid infects a tree, the disease will kill the tree.
There is no treatment to save the tree once infected. That is why so
much effort by agricultural officials has been placed on prevention
of the pest getting a foothold here, and that is why every grower
needs to understand for him/herself how to detect the presence of
ACP/HLB and be proactive about reporting any concerns to your
local county department of agriculture. It is critical to the future of
local agriculture that we support all efforts to contain and eradicate
this pest.
If your fruit trees are located inside the ACP quarantine, there is a
very specific protocol involved to properly handle your harvested
fruit, so feel free to contact us if you need any clarification. In brief,
if you are packing with a packinghouse inside the quarantine area
(like Sunrise Farms), harvesting procedures will be relatively
unchanged; but if you choose to pack your fruit outside the
quarantine and you are inside the quarantine area, it will be more
involved before you can move and pack your fruit. While there are
no fruit treatments necessary to take your fruit outside the quarantine
area, inspections and compliance agreements will be required, and
the fruit will have to be "field cleaned" of all leaves and debris. This
field cleaning, in most cases, is done on machinery in the field, and
will add to the transportation and handling costs. In some cases, it
may not be the best way to treat the fruit, particularly if it is in a
tender or turgid state.
If you fall into one of two Mediterranean fruit fly quarantines:
Unless you are in a position to gamble and wait out the quarantine
(earliest dates the Escondido quarantine could potentially be lifted,
provided no new finds occur, are mid- to late July), you will have to
implement a carefully prescribed treatment plan under the guidance
and approval of CDFA, which includes a specific period of regular
treatments or bait sprays before harvesting. There are acceptable
organic treatments available, and several of our growers have
reported that the process is not that bad. I have been told that the
representatives from CDFA and San Diego County Department of Agriculture have been very helpful in implementing the process.
Regarding the Florida and Texas freezes in January: Texas is
reporting little or no damage to grapefruit, with some minor damage to leaves and outside fruit on Valencias. Florida’s report is
essentially the same, with only a few central and northern groves
reporting some damage. The official USDA report only dropped the
Florida Valencia crop from 66 million boxes down to 63 million
boxes after the freeze. I think the bigger news here is that the overall
crop was already down significantly before the freeze, with all citrus
varieties showing almost 27 million cartons less production this year
over last. This is mostly a result of a lower crop, and acreage lost in
Florida from hurricanes, citrus canker, and HLB. The curious
statistic here is that, in spite of established HLB, Florida is showing
12,000 acres of new plantings.
I personally feel confident that, while staying in the business could
potentially get more difficult, there will still be plenty of opportunity
and future for citrus farming in California. It’s just the nature of the
business that farmers in one area will benefit when there is misfortune
in another region. Look for potentially better orange juice
prices. I am anticipating a better fresh pack market, even though we
will be dealing with difficult economic conditions, and I think the
larger California Navel and Valencia crop may fill the void from the lower Florida crop.
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