Greening disease has citrus industry seeing red; may hike concentrate imports

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

While citrus growers and juice makers are agreed on the five-to-seven-year timeline before the citrus greening disease could become a real problem for the J$3.7-billion industry, they are not seeing eye to eye on how efforts to control the disease will impact production and end-user costs in the near term.

The optimists include Ministry of Agriculture officials who, earlier this month, ordered the closure of all citrus nurseries and the halting of the sale of all citrus plants because of the presence of the deadly disease which affects all citrus plants including lime, grapefruit, tangerines, and oranges.

Marketing consultant and senior director for the Centre of Excellency, Dr Derrick Deslandes, said Tuesday that greening can be managed through removing infected plans and a proper programme of irrigation.

"Unless an increase in costs comes directly from the increased cost of production arising from efforts to manage the disease, I do not foresee an increased juice costs," he told Sunday Business.

"The reduction in supplies from Belize and locally might open the door to imports from cheaper sources. If supplies within Caricom fall below the 75 per cent quotas for production, the Government may also look at adjusting CET on imports from other sources."

Peter McConnell, managing director of Trade Winds Citrus Limited, which cultivates about 2,800 areas of citrus, says that costs related to a multi-pronged approach to keep the vector - the insect that carries the disease - in check are currently manageable.

"While both national and TWCL farm production will decrease until all control/management practices are entrenched, I can't give accurate estimates of costs," said McConnell.

"World and local prices for citrus are at high levels, and the increased cultivation expenditure can be covered."

Measures to control the disease at Trade Winds include the enclosure of nurseries in insect-proof structures to guarantee that only disease-free plants are being distributed. New plants will be ready in two years.

Vector control is being approached via chemical and biological methods, and a nutritional programme to foliar-feed the trees to help counteract the effects of the disease is in place.

For other farmers, McConnell noted, failure to implement the measure will result in the importation of most citrus products within the next five -seven years.

"This disease is described as 'the HIV of citrus'; there is no known cure," said McConnell, who is also head of the Jamaica Citrus Protection Agency (JCPA).

"But like Magic Johnson, a normal healthy life can be experienced with the right treatment," he said.

Less optimistic about the costs and even the viability of controlling the disease is Dr Percy Miller, technical director of the Citrus Growers' Association (CGA), which operates both as a planter and juice producer.

The CGA processes, packages, and markets citrus products and chilled beverages.