This isn't just going to be Australia, but every nation if you ask me.
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2009/11/20/133291_horticulture.html
Australia: Fresh citrus tactics vital
Sandra Godwin
November 20, 2009
AUSTRALIA'S citrus growers have been warned: their future lies in patented varieties, which will cost more to grow but won't guarantee better returns.
Keynote speaker Dr Etienne Rabe told last week's national citrus industry conference at Mildura that high production costs in Australia meant growers would have to use the best technology and newest varieties to be globally competitive.
"You'll have to be proactive and really know what's on offer," he said. "The early bird will either get stung or get the reward.
"I submit to you, you will be sorry either way: sorry that you haven't planted, sorry that you have planted too much or too little.
"Unfortunately that's the way life is going to be in the future."
Sun World Australasia regional licensing manager Bob Wickson was even more blunt in his assessment of the future. Some growers would be denied the opportunity to grow new varieties because they weren't "good enough" to produce the high-quality fruit required, he said.
Dr Rabe, who is vice-president of horticulture at Paramount Citrus - the biggest grower and packer of citrus in California - Biogold USA manager and a director of California Citrus Mutual, the California Research Board and the California Citrus Advisory Board, said Australian citrus exports to the northern hemisphere faced competition from in-season summer fruit, so growers needed to focus on producing fruit of consistent eating quality.
He outlined the "six steps to survival for the fruit business" identified by Sun World International director of variety development Terry Bacon: get bigger through collaboration, watch emerging markets, get certified, adopt new products and marketing ideas, use new management and planting systems that make sense, and use premium managed varieties.
"In the past, most new selections were the result of observed field mutations - sheer luck," he said. "That's going to change in the future. There's going to be much more specifically-bred varieties, as we're seeing from Israel and California."
And the breeders of those new varieties would demand royalties - calculated by area, per tree, or as a percentage of production - as a reward for their years of work and an incentive to keep developing new varieties.
Dr Rabe said grower clubs and acreage caps also would become more common among more novel varieties, to protect against overplanting and a glut of fruit, with the aim of ensuring higher prices.
Despite this, better prices were not guaranteed and the grower would remain the primary risk taker, he said.
Mr Wickson said the intellectual property rights were essential to encourage private plant breeders to do the work once carried out by government scientists.