http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/jan/27/citrus-grove-owners-learn-about-crops-of-the/
Citrus Grove owners learn about crops of the future
By Paul Ivice
Posted January 27, 2010 at 6:01 p.m.
FORT PIERCE Looking into the future, citrus growers are imagining smaller, denser groves filled with bush-like trees that produce fruit at a younger age.
Pete Spyke, president of Fort Pierce-based Arapaho Citrus Management, said orange, grapefruit and specialty citrus groves with more than twice the current average density of 150 trees per acre are in place. These smaller trees not only have higher yields but begin bearing fruit sooner, as early as two years rather than five to seven.
The reason why we had a problem with canker and greening is we had a quarter-million acres of land in the Treasure Coast planted with citrus and nothing else, Spyke said. To reduce the risk of any citrus pest or disease, there needs to be land for other use between groves.
Spyke spoke at the 2010 Florida Citrus Show, formerly Indian River Citrus Seminar, at the Havert L. Fenn Center in Fort Pierce.
These groves of the future require a higher level of management, including water and fertilizer, though the cost per acre is less because new technology improves efficiency, Spyke said. He learned those maintenance strategies while visiting South Africa and other countries and has hired a South African consultant to help manage the groves.
In addition to producing crops, our land can provide values and services to the surrounding residents, Spyke said. We have to look to these values and services as being part of our profit model, in addition to the crops.
Land around the groves would be used for water storage, recreation, wildlife habitat and other environmentally friendly purposes, Spyke said.
The goal is to make more consistent profits and reduce risk, Spyke said. The other land-use improvements are part of that strategy, he said.
Floridas citrus acreage has been declining over the past few decades because of a combination of urban sprawl, diseases and economic conditions.
In a normal year, three-fourths of U.S. citrus production comes from Florida. While Florida grows about half the grapefruit of 40 years ago, China has increased its grapefruit production tenfold and now grows three times as much as Florida.
Still, Indian River grapefruit is the Rolls-Royce of fruit, said Doug Bournique, executive vice president of the Indian River Citrus League, which counts 22 packinghouses and more than 90 growers among its members.
Spyke said, Nobody in the world can grow as high a quality as Indian River citrus. No other land use provides us with as great a competitive edge as that.
To help keep that edge, the federal government is giving the Florida Department of Citrus $5.2 million in matching funds so Florida farmers can expand overseas markets, which also creates jobs locally.
MAP funds are used for consumer promotion, market research and technical assistance.
Dan Richey, president and chief executive officer of Riverfront Packing Co. in Vero Beach, brought attendees up to date on recent changes to rules on shipping fresh fruit to overseas markets worried about the spread of canker.
Richey said getting the federal government to lift the ban on shipping citrus to California, Texas and Arizona will be a big help in negotiations with Japan that resume in late February.
If those talks go well, they can ship citrus showing signs of canker to Japan.
Citrus exporters hope to persuade European counties to agree to what Japan is currently accepting lesion-free fruit picked from infected groves, Richey said.
The European market is more difficult to deal with, Richey said, because each of the 20-plus countries must sign off on any agreement. They only meet every six months and a single citrus-producing country such as Spain could veto a deal.
