Florida Citrus Sector Beyond Tipping Point [Opinion]
December 3, 2015 
In my role as editor of Florida Grower® magazine, I believe it is important to project a positive and optimistic attitude about where our industry stands. In October, to mark 10 years of HLB in Florida, we even featured a cover story focused on 10 reasons why we will survive this plague.
I still believe the industry will survive, but the reality is we are at a tipping point as production continues to plummet. As of this posting, the latest USDA crop estimate pegged at 74 million boxes, driving home the point. During a recent Florida Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said, “Some would say we’ve blown past the tipping point.” Last year, I heard from several growers that we’ve not bottomed out yet. Unfortunately, they were right.
It is hard to get your head around just how to react and what to say in this kind of situation. It is vital growers continue to plant new trees to preserve as much infrastructure as possible. But, I certainly can’t blame a grower who chooses not to when there is so much evidence HLB is winning the fight right now.
Florida’s signature crop has been forever changed by this terrible disease. I was saddened to see a number comments from smaller growers in our annual Citrus Industry Pulse survey that they were getting out of the business. Consolidation is a natural offshoot of HLB’s impact, but we must continue to fight for a diverse and balanced industry. At this point, it comes down to finding a solution and slowly rebuilding what has been lost.
There is good news in this story. Had we not ramped up and funded the massive research effort currently under way, the industry would likely have already been lost. Nearly $200 million has been invested to save the industry and there are glimmers of hope that scientists are closing in on answers.
One of particular interest is the use of bactericides to knock back the HLB bacteria. There are some PR challenges that come with the use of these materials, but if they will help this industry recover, we must be prepared to stand up and fight to get them registered and accepted by the public. In addition, our understanding of how this disease interacts with citrus grows deeper every day and other research promises to deliver the help growers need to hang on.
We will survive. We just have to navigate through these troubled times and keep reminding others outside the industry just how real this threat is.
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