Florida Citrus Industry Comments Regarding Fruit Fly Research

Abstract

It is a real pleasure to be here. It is a real honor to be among such learned people endeavoring to find the secrets, knowledge, the wherewithal to eradicate or control pests that dramatically effect our ability to produce and/ or have access to certain markets. I represent the Florida Citrus Packers. We are the commercial fresh citrus shippers of Florida, the packinghouses, who ship fresh citrus. Our members ship approximately 70 million 4/5 bushel, 42 lb. cartons of which approximately 25-30 millon are exported to Japan, the Far East, and West Europe. Approximately 60% of our fresh fruit shipment is grapefruit. Florida citrus industry covers some 735,000 acres, generating approximately $2.5 bilion annually in economic activity in Florida. Somewhere around $500 million of the 21/2 billion dollars is fresh. It goes without saying that we are very concerned with anything that may affect our bottom line. After all, we are in the business to make money and we are notbashful about that fact, however, we are in a world market, where competition is at the least incredibly tough. To the extent that fruit flies cause us problems and may affect our bottom line we are very concerned... As a result of an infestation of fruit flies we either have to treat our fruit or ship under an expensive protocol; we might even be barred from certain markets, under a worse case scenario.