http://www.theledger.com/article/20090827/NEWS/908275069/1178?Title=Citrus-Shipping-Ban-May-End

Citrus Shipping Ban May End
Removal of canker restrictions could mean regaining major markets in California and Asia

By Kevin Bouffard
THE LEDGER

Published: Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 5:54 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 9:51 p.m.

LAKE ALFRED | Florida's fresh fruit growers and shippers are on the verge of recapturing markets in California and other citrus-producing states and perhaps re-entering key export markets.

"I think everything looks very good," said Richard Kinney, chief executive of Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Packers, the industry's trade group. "I'm constantly told by growers and packers: If we can't ship interstate, we can't stay in business."

Kinney was speaking about a pending new U.S. Department of Agriculture rule to lift the quarantine on fresh Florida citrus shipments to 10 other U.S. citrus-producing territories and states, including California, previously one of the largest markets for fresh Florida citrus.

Kinney spoke to about 170 growers and citrus industry people at the 48th annual Citrus Packinghouse Day at the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.

The USDA imposed the quarantine in 2006 shortly after state and federal officials abandoned the Citrus Canker Eradication Program. They determined canker eradication was impossible because the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes had spread the disease throughout Florida's citrus-growing region.

Canker is a bacterial disease causing lesions on citrus fruit. That makes the fruit unmarketable.

The USDA rule prohibits shipping any fresh Florida oranges, grapefruit and other citrus fruit to the 10 states and territories because of the risk infected fruit would spread canker to those areas.

The USDA rule led other citrus-producing countries to adopt trade restrictions.

In Japan, the world's largest market for Florida grapefruit, one grapefruit with canker lesions could lead to the rejection of an entire shipment of 1,000 cartons, Kinney said.

The rule had a particular impact in Polk County, home to several of the state's largest citrus packinghouses. Polk also leads the state in annual production of fresh tangerines.

But research by scientists at the Lake Alfred center and the USDA Horticulture Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce determined fresh citrus, even fruit with canker lesions, would not spread canker to a healthy tree, Kinney noted.

Based on that science, the USDA on June 30 proposed a new regulation that would lift the quarantine on Florida citrus. A 60-day comment period on the rule ends Monday.

Kinney expressed confidence the USDA would enact the proposed rule after the comment period because it is based on sound research and risk analysis confirmed in reviews by independent experts.

But he added that opposition to USDA regulations traditionally does not surface until the last days of the comment period. California citrus officials have previously objected to changing the quarantine rule.

"We don't think that's going to happen," he said. "On Tuesday I'll probably know a little more."

Even if no significant opposition surfaces, Kinney said, he can't say how quickly USDA officials will take to review the comments and draft the final rule.

The quarantine probably won't be lifted in time for the beginning of the 2009-10 citrus season in October, he said, but it could come by the Christmas season, a peak sales time, or next year.

Getting other countries to change their canker-related restrictions can't happen until the United States changes its own rules, Kinney said. Then U.S. trade officials can begin negotiations with those countries on changing their rules.

In another presentation, Tom Burks, professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the UF Gainesville campus, said he has developed a new "hyperspectral imaging system" for packinghouses to detect canker-infected fruit along the production line.

The system reads light rays reflected off the fruit to detect fruit with lesions as small as 2 milimeters with 95 percent accuracy, he said. It can scan up to 10 fruit per second on a packinghouse line.

The system could be installed at a packinghouse in six months or less, Burks said.

[ Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or 863-422-6800. ]