US (CA): Citrus quarantine in Tulare discussed
Quarantine restrictions are likely to be the end result.
How much of an impact quarantine will have on grower-packers and the ongoing citrus harvest in Tulare County will depend on the boundaries, said Bob Blakely, director of industry relations for California Citrus Mutual.
“It keeps changing,” said Gavin Iacono, Tulare County deputy agricultural commissioner, about possible boundaries. “Originally, it was the whole county, then a 20-mile radius. Now they’re talking about a couple of different scenarios.”
Tulare County Ag Commissioner Marilyn Kinoshita and her staff met with about 700 growers, packers, haulers and processors, Nov. 28, to discuss what they knew about the quarantine.
Under the proposal, growers within the quarantine zone could move fruit to packinghouses within the regulated area without additional restrictions, Iacono said.
Growers who wanted to move fruit out of the quarantine would first have to run it through a field-cleaning machine, which removes stems and leaves, or run it through brushes and rollers in a packinghouse within the quarantine, he said.
Field cleaning machines are rare in California’s Central Valley, and most were developed to handle fruit in Southern California and Arizona groves already under psyllid quarantines, he said.
The requirements are likely to cause issues for growers who supply specialty markets, as branch and leaf parts are typically left attached, which will not be permitted under the quarantine regulations.
Blakely said he’s hopeful the Tulare County insects were just hitchhikers on illegal plant material from Southern California, where there’s an ongoing psyllid-control program and quarantine.
“What’s interesting about both of these finds is they were in traps that weren’t actually in trees but were on poles along a major highway where there’s a lot of fruit moving back and forth,” Blakely said. “There’s also fruit coming up from Southern California. It’s looking more like they were possibly brought into the area.”
Subsequent surveys and trapping of both groves by the ag commissioner’s office failed to find additional psyllids, he said.
Source: agprofessional.com
