The U.S. Department of Agriculture changed its citrus canker regulations Friday to eliminate pre-harvest grove inspections for all Florida citrus fruit moving between states.

Instead, the USDA will require samples of each lot of citrus at the packinghouse to be inspected to ensure the fruit is free of canker, a bacterial disease that causes unsightly lesions.

Any fruit that shows canker symptoms cannot be shipped out of state, but can be sent to a juice processing plant or sold within Florida.

Florida growers welcomed the change, but a California citrus industry official decried it.

"This regulatory change will enable Florida growers to maintain, and possibly increase, the amount of fresh citrus shipped to eligible states while providing the same level of protection against the spread of citrus canker," Bruce Knight, undersecretary for USDA's marketing and regulatory programs, said in a statement.

Florida has been battling this round of citrus canker since 1995, but it wasn't until June 2006 that the USDA banned Florida fruit shipments to California and other citrus-producing states and territories.

The new rule keeps that ban in place.

Florida growers, who sell about 15 percent of their citrus as fresh fruit, said the rule is less onerous than the one under which they have been operating the last few years.

"It is substantially better," said Dan Richey, president of Riverfront Groves and Riverfront Packing in Vero Beach. "Before, if you had even one leaf with canker in a grove, you could not ship that fruit fresh."

Growers' group Florida Citrus Mutual in Lakeland applauded the USDA's move.

"Without this type of rule, we might lose the entire Florida fresh citrus industry," Chief Executive Officer Michael Sparks said in a statement.

But Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, called the change "extremely disappointing."

"This is a bad precedent for agriculture," Nelsen said. "At one time we were all aligned to the fact that no product could originate from pest-infested areas. Now our borders are overflowing with pests."

Nelsen predicts that there will soon be a lineup of countries seeking to ship agricultural products from disease-infested areas.

Richey said Florida growers believe "asymptomatic" fruit - citrus without canker lesions - does not carry the disease.

"We should be able to ship to California," Richey said. "If further research proves that is the case, we would petition for access. All we want is the market access we are due on a scientific basis, not political."


Source: palmbeachpost.com

USDA eases Fla. citrus shipping rules

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday issued a rule change allowing untainted fresh citrus fruit from Florida groves where citrus canker has been found to be shipped to most states in the nation.

Previously, the USDA banned Florida citrus growers from shipping their fresh produce if canker had been found in their groves. Florida Citrus Mutual and other industry groups lobbied for the change, Florida Citrus Mutual spokesman Andrew Meadows said.

Instead, a sample of fresh citrus will be taken from each load, and inspected by the USDA at packinghouses.

The new rule will go into effect Monday, Meadows said.

Still, Florida packers will not be able to ship fresh citrus to other commercial citrus-producing states — such as Arizona, California and Texas — as precaution to protect the citrus industry in those states.

In addition, fruit that is found to have canker symptoms will not be shipped.

Canker is a bacterial disease that ruins the appearance of citrus skin, making it unfit for the fresh fruit market, although it leaves the fruit inside edible.

About 10 percent of Florida citrus is used for the fresh-fruit market, while the rest is used for juice and concentrate.

“We applaud the USDA for making a measured decision on this rule,” Florida Citrus Mutual Chief Executive Officer Michael Sparks said in a statement. “Without this type of rule, we might lose the entire Florida fresh citrus industry.”

Sparks said Florida Citrus Mutual will continue to work to implement a policy that eventually allows fresh Florida citrus to enter commercial citrus-producing states.

Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual is the state’s largest citrus-grower organization, representing nearly 8,000 growers.


Source: floridatoday.com

Publication date: 11/19/2007

Sorry for the same content, although that was intentional in part. It goes to show that the news is being disseminated at various local papers already...