The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) board of directors held its June meeting at the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs.
“Congratulations to Florida Citrus Mutual for putting on another outstanding industry conference,” said Rick Dantzler, CRDF chief operating officer. “Several growers who attended told me they got an awful lot out of the meeting.”
Dantzler said CRDF’s first order of business was consideration of the tax rate for the Citrus Marketing Order that it recommends to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson.
“The board chose to leave the tax rate at two pennies per box, which has been the rate for the previous two years,” Dantzler said. “That is down from three pennies per box previously.”
The board also discussed and approved the CRDF budget for the next fiscal year. It allows for $1.2 million in new research spending for the coming year.
“This funding is in addition to the 62 projects we already have under contract,” Dantzler said. “Following this was consideration of 18 research matters. Plant breeding —including transgenics — and projects dealing with the use of antibacterials were the largest research categories.
“During the educational session the following day at the conference, we had nine outstanding presentations. They focused on CRDF’s research strategy of reducing the HLB bacteria in trees as much as possible to keep growers going until a resistant tree is available. A grower who I spoke with afterwards said that after seeing the presentations, he hasn’t been this hopeful in years. I took that as a sign that it was a good program.”
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