A statewide quarantine could be on the horizon and some citrus growers could be against the proposed regional ACP approach that would keep some movement restrictions in place.
Once a majority or all of the citrus-producing areas in the state are under an Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) quarantine, the state could deregulate local quarantines and move to a statewide approach. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is attempting to change that by requesting a regional approach once that happens. Tulare County Agricultural Commissioner Marylin Kinoshita says some growers are against that change though a statewide approach would save them money and hassle.
“When a grower packs his fruit at one of our facilities, there are packing charges,” Kinoshita says. “Those same charges would apply to someone who is just taking bins from the field and cleaning it in order to move it up here for packing. So essentially they’re getting packing charges twice and that’s alarming to growers.”
Kinoshita says there is another option, but it’s still costly. “They do have a spray-and-move option where you treat a field and you have a certain number of days to get in there and pick. Then you can move citrus anywhere in the state,” Kinoshita says. “That’s the option that most of our growers went with when a portion of our county was quarantined.”