Citrus Struggles Are Nothing New
August 1, 2008 Well, what can you say about the Florida citrus industry? These are challenging times, folks. But, we’ve faced difficulties before and came out of them stronger.
Key Concerns
It is clear to me that our industry’s battle against huanglongbing (HLB) may be the most important challenge that has ever faced our industry. This disease is serious and has the potential to destroy everything we and our fathers and their fathers and their fathers built over the past century. It’s a wake-up call of the highest magnitude.
Mutual is committed to working with state and federal governments and the Florida Citrus Commission to unearth every dollar to fund research. We all know research is the key to ultimately defeating this disease. Experts estimate we’ve got a five-year window. We can do it.
If HLB is priority No. 1 for Florida citrus, immigration has to be issue 1(b). Comprehensive immigration reform failed last year for a variety of reasons. Mutual has been in the thick of the debate from day one, and we will continue to work with our allies and lobbying partners in Washington to get something done that benefits citrus growers. The issue is not an easy one, and it is not going to go away. We cannot operate in the current environment; the system is broken. We must make the H-2A program, or some other guestworker program, viable for citrus growers — plain and simple. There isn’t another option. We will keep the industry updated as this issue progresses in 2008–2009.
Farm Bill Victory
One of our industry’s successes in 2007–2008 was getting the Farm Bill passed. For the first time ever, the bill has mandatory spending on fruits and vegetables for marketing, school nutrition, and most importantly, pest and disease research. We plan to aggressively tap into that funding in 2008–2009. It will be important that we as an industry work in a coordinated manner to maximize our Farm Bill benefits. There’s a lot of funding at stake that could alleviate the growers’ burden. The Florida Citrus Commission has stepped up to provide research funding, but with OJ consumption declining, we need as much money as possible to be allocated back to marketing programs. The Farm Bill will help.
Also Of Importance
Of course, trade will continue to be an issue as we move into the 2008–2009 season. Mutual will be vigilant on this issue as our country elects a new president and a new Congress this fall. The tariff is a non-negotiable issue. And, we will make sure importers bringing product into the U.S. are playing by the rules.
Our industry is going to be busy in Tallahassee during 2009. This year we were very successful in obtaining a $2 million general revenue appropriation for pest and disease research — which was nothing short of miraculous considering the state is facing a budget shortfall, and programs were being cut all over the place. We will once again chase research money in 2009. The Florida Department of Citrus will be a big part of our industry’s discussion in Tallahassee. We have the Sunset Review and proposed grower referendum as well as the unified juice tax effort to help solve the free rider issue.
Let’s get this straight: The 2008–2009 season will not be easy. The combination of increased production, heavy import volumes, and declining sales has created a substantial build-up in orange juice inventories that will likely have a negative effect on fruit pricing in 2008–2009. We may be looking at average prices of about $1.00 to $1.05 per pounds solid. Factor in the additional costs associated with fertilizer prices, psyllid management, HLB scouting, and energy, and you have a template for a down year.
But our industry is a resilient group. As any farmer will tell you, overcoming challenges is a way of life in agriculture. We’ll beat HLB, we’ll get consumption up, and then we’ll move on to the next hurdle. The path won’t be a piece of cake, but nothing worthwhile ever is. I’ll bet in 25 years, growers will be talking about the challenges they encountered and defeated during the 2008–2009 season, while facing a whole new set of problems they will no doubt rise above.
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