budget

Telling Millennials About Citrus

Ernie NeffCitrus, Florida Citrus Commission

Florida Department of Citrus (FDOC) Executive Director Shannon Shepp discusses the department’s mission and how it gets its message to its primary audience, millennials. Millennials are generally considered those born from 1977 to the mid-1990s. “Right now, remember, we have a declining availability of OJ (orange juice) worldwide. It’s very hard to increase sales of something you have declining supply …

florida citrus

USDA Citrus Crop Forecast Has Little Changes

Daniel CooperCitrus, Crop Forecast

Mark Hudson, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Agricultural Statistics Service, reported the December citrus crop forecast. Florida has no changes in non-Valencia or Valencia oranges. Grapefruit for the month dropped from 9.6 to 9.3 million boxes with white at 2 million boxes and red at 7.3 million boxes each. Tangerines and tangelos changed from 1.55 to 1.5 million boxes, …

Leadership Change at Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association

Tacy CalliesCitrus

Update as of 1-4-17: Katie Marks has decided to stay with her current employer and will not be accepting the position as executive director with Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association. Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association (PRVCGA) Executive Director LeAnna Himrod announced she has accepted a new position as communications manager at the Florida Department of Citrus. Responsibilities in …

December Citrus Industry Features Annual Citrus Guide

Tacy CalliesCitrus

December is the time for Christmas trees, gift-giving and the annual Citrus Guide! The December issue of Citrus Industry magazine features our annual Citrus Guide. It’s a directory of contact information for citrus organizations, agencies, researchers and vendors. This is an issue readers will want to keep handy all year long. In addition to the Citrus Guide, this edition includes …

The Many Hats of Allen Morris

Tacy CalliesCitrus, Economics

By Tacy Callies Having grown up in the small north Florida town of Macclenny, a farming community, Allen Morris was introduced to agriculture at an early age. His father died in a tractor accident when Morris was seven, but that didn’t deter him from wanting to earn a living in agriculture. In fact, at 14, he obtained a restricted driver’s …

What to Expect from Brazil’s Next Citrus Season

Josh McGillGlobal Perspectives

By Marcos Fava Neves The first crop estimate was released in May for the 2016–17 citrus season in Brazil, which should be of great interest to Florida’s citrus industry. ACREAGE AND AGE The area of orange groves in Brazil, including all varieties, is 416,843 hectares (ha) —6.2 percent smaller than the 2015 figure. There was a considerable reduction of 27,882 …

HLB tolerance

Southern Gardens Citrus to Host HLB Webinar

Tacy CalliesCitrus, Citrus Greening

Rick Kress, senior vice president of research commercialization for Southern Gardens Citrus will present a webinar titled “Can We Live Without Citrus?” on August 25 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT. Can you imagine what your store would look like if the orange juice section was suddenly empty or produce shelves were void of all oranges, grapefruit, lemons and …

bactericides survey

Sparks Discusses Citrus Tariffs and PFD

Ernie NeffLegislative, Pests

Florida Citrus Mutual CEO Mike Sparks discusses the association’s annual conference this week, including the election of a new association president, the U.S. presidential race from a tariff perspective, and postbloom fruit drop (PFD). During the conference, Mutual’s trade attorney reported on presidential candidates’ views regarding tariffs, which can impact citrus trade. Sparks comments on that report: “When you hear …

task force

Task Force and Credit Line to Assist Brazil with Greening

Daniel CooperBrazil, HLB Management

Fundecitrus recently announced two efforts aimed at assisting Brazilian growers with citrus greening. A São Paulo task force will include a focus on the disease, and a credit line will be available for growers with greening in their orchards. In addition to greening, the public/private task force will address development of biofertilizer and biological research, studies to increase productivity in …

Millennium Block

Millennium Block Research Shows Promising Results

Daniel CooperGrapefruit, Indian River, Research

A recent update of Millennium Block research at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce indicates the 5,500 trees in the project are yielding promising results. The four trials within the Millennium Block aim to unlock the genetic potential of new scion and rootstock hybrids never tested …

growers

CITRUS NURSERY SOURCE: What Florida Citrus Growers Are Talking About

Daniel CooperCitrus Nursery Source

By Peter Chaires When June rolls around, the last of the oranges are generally coming in and it’s time to reassess what worked and identify areas for improvement. Research-based entities are making every effort to steer dollars to where they will have the most immediate impact. The name of the game right now is capacity preservation. We must do what …

postharvest

Ways to Cut Postharvest Waste

Daniel CooperInternational, Research

Citrus farming worldwidedelivers an annual 140 million tons of oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruits, but much of the postharvest crop is lost before it reaches the market. “Up to 30% of citrus fruit is lost to decay and disease following harvesting,” says food scientist Yang Shan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the Dongting …

Harvest+

Brazil’s Harvest+ Reports Progress

Daniel CooperBrazil, Harvesting

Brazil’s Harvest+ project coordinator, Efraim Albrecht, recently traveled to Europe in search of mechanized and semi-mechanized solutions to improve citrus harvesting in Brazil. Harvest+ seeks to establish partnerships with companies that develop equipment and technologies that serve Brazilian orchards. It also seeks to contact universities and research centers that have innovative projects. In Seville, Spain, Move Agro’s coordinator and process …

Citrus Achievement Award

Preserving and Promoting the Florida Citrus Industry

Daniel CooperAwards

Citrus historian and volunteer extraordinaire Brenda Eubanks Burnette is the 2024 Citrus Achievement Award winner. Brenda Eubanks Burnette’s initial exposure to the citrus industry was merely by chance. As Miss Winter Haven in 1978, she was asked to fill in when the reigning Florida Citrus Queen couldn’t make a scheduled appearance at a citrus processing plant. A MEMORABLE REIGN Needing …

fresh

A Fresh Approach

Daniel CooperCRAFT, Fresh, Packing

Despite the challenges of the Florida citrus industry, Feek Family Citrus continues to successfully grow, pack and ship fresh fruit. In an effort to discourage his son from working in the citrus business, Doug Feek’s father gave him all the worst jobs to do in the family’s small grove. “He wanted me to save my back and work a desk …

sales

Florida Citrus Land Sales and Prices

Daniel CooperLand

The recent Lay of the Land Florida 2023 Market Report from SVN Saunders Ralston Dantzler Real Estate highlighted 40 citrus grove sales in 12 Central Florida counties last year. The average sales price of $11,141 per net tree acre was up 3% from the prior year. The average gross acre sales price was $9,284, up 7%. The highlighted grove sales …

lennon

Surviving to Fight Another Day

Daniel CooperFlorida, HLB Management

Bill Lennon is working with researchers to learn more about survivor trees that are standing up to HLB. Bill Lennon is a fifth-generation citrus grower who can recall the industry’s glory days when Central Florida had hundreds of thousands of citrus acres before the 1980s freezes pushed production southward in the state. But he’s remained dedicated to the area, managing …

therapies

Nutrition Remains a Critical Element as New Therapies Roll Out

Daniel CooperNutrition

Growers have largely adopted new trunk-injection therapies to fight the effects of HLB in citrus groves. In addition, plant growth regulators have helped improve tree health and fruit retention. One University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) scientist reminds growers to maintain their fertilizer programs as the new therapies are deployed.  Davie Kadyampakeni, UF/IFAS associate professor of …

South African Lemon/Lime Production to Jump

Tacy CalliesCrop Forecast, International, lemons

South African lemon and lime production in 2023–24 will increase by 10% compared to the prior year, to 720,000 metric tons (MT), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA FAS) forecast. ACREAGE The area planted with lemons/limes in South Africa has more than doubled over the past seven years, driven by global demand and rising global prices. However, …

citrus greening

New Light Shed on HLB and Fertilization

Tacy CalliesHLB Management, Nutrition

The effort to help huanglongbing (HLB)-impacted citrus trees has taken another step forward. A University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) study examined the relationship between fertilization, root health and fruit yield. Researchers focused on Valencia orange trees with HLB. Associate Professor Davie Kadyampakeni led the effort at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center. The study, …