Florida, California ramp up fruit feud


By SUSAN SALISBURY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

It's a fruit fight that's taken another sour twist.

And the result could be that Florida groceries will be running short on lemons, navel oranges and seedless tangerines.

Last week, the Florida Department of Agriculture issued a new regulation requiring all citrus fruit shipped from California to Florida to be inspected, fumigated and certified free of a fungal disease known as Septoria spot.

Otherwise, no California fruit will be allowed in Florida.

"Florida doesn't have it, and frankly, we would like to keep it that way," said Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the state agriculture department.

"We are not saying we won't take their fruit, we are saying they have to follow certain measures. We don't understand why that is so onerous."

For California's part, growers there say the state's move is all about retaliation.

The federal government is not allowing Florida growers to ship citrus to other citrus-growing states because canker is epidemic here.

"We're not shipping fruit to Florida," said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual. "If you start subjecting yourself to those arbitrary rules that anybody puts in place you will have arbitrary rules for each state and country."

Nelsen's group, along with Sunkist Growers and two other California grower and shipper organizations, filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee on Friday seeking to overturn the new regulation.

The suit claims Septoria is not a threat to Florida citrus, and that only two pieces of fruit with the fungus were found in California during the past season.

An emergency hearing is set for Dec. 18.

Relations between California and Florida have been strained because of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's canker ban, first mandated in June 2006.

California citrus interests had asked for Florida fruit to be restricted from all states except northern states east of the Mississippi.

In November, the USDA eliminated pre-harvest grove inspections in Florida and shifted canker inspections to the packinghouses.

California's citrus industry typically ships 7 million cartons of citrus to Florida annually at an average price of $14 a carton, according to the lawsuit.

That represents $98 million of lost business because of the regulation.

California citrus is sold to retail stores and also supplies the Florida-based cruise ship industry, Nelsen said.

"Florida has gone to the extreme here. The cruise ships won't be able to get our lemons," he said.

Nelsen said Septoria spot, caused by the fungus Septoria citri, was identified in California 50 years ago, and it has never been transmitted to Florida.

Since 2004, South Korea has required oranges from two California counties to be treated for Septoria before coming into that country, according to USDA documents.

In a letter to the Florida Agriculture Department's Division of Plant Industry earlier this month, USDA official Richard Dunkle said the disease is considered to be of minor significance, is reported in most of the world's citrus-growing regions and would not require a federal quarantine.

But state agriculture officials said Florida's fresh-fruit growers are dealing with two other citrus diseases - canker and greening - and don't need to be hit with another one.

"We are not prohibiting California citrus from being sent into Florida," said department spokesman Terry McElroy. "We are simply wanting to make sure it has been inspected and it has been declared free of this."

Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2007/12/12/a1d_califcitrus_1212.html

......."California fruit to be inspected, fumigated and certified?.........

WHAT A JOKE THE FLORIDA DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE HAS BECOME!

just grow your own. hehe

Let them fight it out....there are more states growing citrus than these two.

Growers along the Gulf Coast should be taking advantage of this if at all possible.

Alabama is pushing for increased satsuma production, to an extent, but not at the level they should be. They are very "tight lipped" with information out of Auburn Univ. & my personal experience has been to find my info outside the state (LA/TX).

I met with two of our "resident gurus" almost 3 years ago & they had met one of the growers here in Alabama...they said it was like dealing with the KGB or something.

The point being: bureaucrats screw up everything they touch.

Jim, Have you tried talking to Monte Nesbit at the Fairhope research station-- he seemed to be much more helpful than one other guy I talked to at the seminar. They had a bunch of handouts at the seminar that you might could ask for. He could also probably give you the last name of the lady that did her dissertation on economics of freeze protection (her first name was Frances). You could then get a copy of her dissertation from Auburn or thru loan at your library.

BTW -- where is Bear Creek?

Florida sours on California citrus over possible disease

The Associated Press
Article Launched: 12/14/2007 04:10:26 PM PST

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida has soured on California-grown citrus.

A legal dispute has emerged between the two states over the importing of fresh citrus and concerns of fungus-laden fruit making its way into Florida groves and markets and, eventually, into Korea.

Florida has begun restricting imports of California citrus, and state agriculture officials said that without new inspections and chemical treatment, California citrus peels could carry a fungus that might spread to Florida trees.

The inspections protect Florida growers from the fungus, which could jeopardize the state's sale of oranges to Korea, said Richard Gaskalla, head of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service's pest and disease control unit.

Florida first set a Dec. 1 deadline for California growers to comply with the new rules, or the imports would be blocked. The deadline was then extended to Dec. 8.

In response, a group of California citrus interests asked a court in Tallahassee to block the restrictions, claiming in their lawsuit that Florida acted "in excess of its delegated authority and/or illegally, and/or with ignorance of the law, facts or the public good."

The restrictions are "a retaliatory move" for California's opposition to allowing Florida-grown fresh citrus into California because of concerns over citrus canker, a harmful bacteria, said Joel Nelsen, executive director of California Citrus Mutual.

"If we wanted to be retaliatory we'd say, 'Don't send us any fruit,'" Gaskalla said in an interview before the lawsuit was filed. "They are not letting any of our fruit in. This is just one of many certification programs we have in place to let product into our state but make sure that it is pest- and disease-free."

Canker causes unsightly lesions on fruit, but does not hurt the juice or endanger humans. The fungus, septoria citri, also stains fresh fruit and is harmless to people.

Florida has been allowed under federal rules to ship fresh fruit anywhere in the U.S. except California and other citrus-producing states.

Korea requires California to follow measures similar to those Florida wants to impose on California fruit. Florida's restrictions grew partly out of concern that Korea might impose restrictions on Florida fruit if the fungus became established here.

Nelsen said negotiations have taken place to modify some of the requirements and some California growers and shippers may meet the standards and begin shipping. But Nelsen said that will not stop the lawsuit, which said there is no indication the fungus has been transmitted to Florida in 50 years of accepting California fresh fruit.

California ships about 4 1/2 million cartons of fresh fruit to Florida each year, valued at about $75 million, according to the suit.

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Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7724888