Adam Putnam: Citrus Industry ‘Still Blocking and Tackling’

“We’re an industry who’s a group of fighters,” Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam says in summarizing his talk Friday at the Indian River Citrus League’s annual meeting in Vero Beach. “With all the challenges that we’ve seen here on the River – from canker to hurricanes and the devastation caused by greening – we’re still blocking and tackling and working hard to save this industry.”

He notes that he told growers about a state program and federal efforts to give growers incentives to replant, as well as his department’s project to remove abandoned groves that can harbor HLB-spreading psyllids.

“It’s too early to tell for sure whether our bactericides are all that we hoped that they would be, but there is a sense out there that they are working well,” Putnam adds.

Asked if he’d like to take a shot at the pending orange crop forecast, he laughs and says only that he hopes a private forecaster’s projection of 60.5 million boxes is low.