Several citrus growers, consultants and others from São Paulo, Brazil, recently toured Florida’s Indian River citrus region to examine the management of HLB. Flavia Zambon, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) assistant professor of horticultural production at the Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC), hosted the group.
“In the traditional production region known as the Brazilian Citrus Belt, HLB is reaching over 70% of incidence,” said Zambon. “The Brazilian producers look to UF/IFAS researchers and producers to plan their own HLB management strategies.”
Gilberto Tozatti, Hamilton Rocha and Jeferson Pereira of the Group of Consultants in Citrus organized the tour. Joining the consultants were a farm director, two members of the citrus distribution system and six citrus growers.
The visitors toured the UF/IFAS citrus horticulture production laboratory at IRREC and met with Indian River Citrus League Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Bournique. They then visited the variety trials at the IRREC Millennium Block and a local commercial citrus grove.
“The Brazilian growers are to expand their citrus operations to other areas outside São Paulo state, such as Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Bahia and Paraná, where HLB incidence is lower and there is land to be used,” Zambon said. “This exodus to other states will bring discussion on incorporating HLB management strategies into Brazil’s production groves.”
At the Millennium Block, visitors sampled Glenn navel oranges and saw fruit development of some of the new grapefruit varieties.
“Some of the growers never saw a grapefruit, as it is not consumed in Brazil as it is here in the United States,” said Zambon.
At Scott Groves, the Brazilians met with owner Ken Scott. Kevin Hancock, Scott Groves production manager and former UF/IFAS researcher, escorted the visitors through the groves.
“Kevin Hancock showed our guests the OLL sweet oranges developed from the UF/IFAS citrus breeding program, lemons and grapefruit varieties and explained the citrus industry from a grower standpoint,” said Zambon.
“One of the intentions of the growers’ visit to Florida and the Indian River region was to learn and see new strategies to manage HLB and open possibilities for research collaboration with our scientists,” said Zambon. “The Brazilian citrus reality is turning into what we’ve seen in Florida for years. The Brazilian guests saw firsthand the most recent results of the horticultural research with the multiple HLB-infected combinations at the Millennium Block and commercial grove management strategies at Scott Groves.”
Source: UF/IFAS
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