The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) quarantine program now requires all harvesters/farm labor contractors (FLCs) to have valid compliance agreements to harvest citrus groves. An FLC is defined as any person or establishment that employs people to perform work related to grove management and/or harvesting commercial citrus fruit. The requirement was announced by CDFA’s Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Division.
FLCs will have until June 15 to obtain and sign compliance agreements. Any FLCs operating in citrus groves without a compliance agreement after the June 15 deadline will be in violation of quarantine requirements.
Compliance agreements can be obtained by directly reaching out to your local CDFA ACP/HLB Program contact. Completed agreements can be returned to CDFA via local regulatory staff or by email to ACPCompliance@cdfa.ca.gov. Contact details by region are as follows:
Los Angeles/Orange counties – Stephanie Fragoso
Stephanie.Fragoso@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 323-576-2762
Riverside/San Bernardino counties – Christina Huggins
Christina.Huggins@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 951-880-9447
San Diego/Imperial counties – Jemellee Urbino
Jemellee.Urbino@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 619-698-0211
San Joaquin Valley – Lea Pereira
Lea.Pereira@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 559-625-1040
Ventura County/Central Coast – Nathan Rosenblum
Nathan.Rosenblum@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 805-437-8726
CDFA Sacramento headquarters
ACPCompliance@cdfa.ca.gov
Phone: 916-274-6300
ACP spreads HLB disease from tree to tree. In a 2021 letter to California’s Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program, Florida grower Pete Spyke noted that HLB is endemic in Florida and several other states, but not in California. The Florida industry has suffered drastic production and acreage losses since HLB was discovered in the state in 2005. Spyke stated that California still has a good chance to preserve its citrus industry and offered advice for doing that.
Source: CDFA
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