And today the CGA issued its own press release saying it is, quote, "concerned that recent comments aired within the national media attempt to prognosticate a collapse of the Citrus Industry, putting investments in production, processing, and marketing at risk." End quote.
They noted that at the industry's peak in 2008, 8 million boxes of citrus was produced with forecasts for up to 13 million boxes by 2013. However, the effect of HLB disease, climate change and adverse weather conditions caused a decline in production to 3.2 million boxes prior to 2020.
Then COVID came, which caused a sudden collapse of migrant labor employed for harvesting. Between 2020 and 2022, the losses were valued at 60 million dollars. This labor shortage persisted until February of this year, when the government implemented a remedy for migrant work permits, but by then, most of this year's crop was already lost.
However, even with all that, the chairman of the Citrus Growers Association insists the industry is experiencing a rebirth - albeit with major assistance from the government. We spoke with him today via Zoom.
Eccleston Irving, Chairman, CGA
"It is, uh, agriculture we are in and it's, it's, uh, we are coming out of a pandemic that, uh, affected us terrible, which was probably not widely known to, uh, many stakeholders that are not directly involved, uh, in the industry. And so, um, we, we laid out some, uh, some of our, uh, position that the industry is facing and what we're doing about it, including lobbying, uh, to the government."
"The state of the industry, uh, uh, as it is right now, it's going through a rebirth. And so, um, we are, uh, we have planted, uh, thousands of acres close to about, uh, 6,000 acres of new, new growths. And, uh, in the last couple years, uh, we have been working and, um, uh, uh, almost four or five years, going on to four years. Uh, a few of the plants are painted in varieties, which are showing up very good as we are facing, uh, HLB. And so, um, and we're facing climate change as well. And so we are doing some work things like, uh, uh, looking after irrigation and things like that and best formation for the type of growing, uh, production system that we need to face these, uh, challenges."
"This is a long term industry and when they, uh, uh, what, what would be called, um, challenges of this of this nature, uh, affecting it, it's not like other industries, which can, which are three months industries or one year industries, uh, that would take to, to bounce back. It takes couple of years before, uh, when the intervention take place before uh, sustainable results begin to show. And, um, we, we know that even on the local market that it has had a big effect. We see the price of different citrus products on the market right now and we know the issue of food security and what Citrus does and the health benefits of citrus in eras of health, uh, coming through the pandemic. and also in terms of re regular dietary supplements and so on."
