Indian River Citrus League’s (IRCL) Board of Directors met Thursday attracting a large crowd of area growers to the meeting as always. The agenda included Citrus Department officials to discuss budget proposals and details about Federal Marketing Order ideas; several research updates; a legislative report from area Rep. Ralph Poppell (bottom left) himself a League member; and several other topics. …

Confusion abounds among Florida citrus growers about a Federal Marketing Order being discussed that might bring in new funds for citrus research and maybe promotion too, depending on how the Order is structured. Some growers worry about losing control over citrus marketing efforts or research direction. Florida Citrus Mutual and others urged Citrus Commissioners Wednesday to pass a motion to …

Several issues are up for discussion at this week’s Florida Citrus Commission meeting in Lakeland. Commissioners are wrestling with industry structure issues, research funding, marketing emphasis and a fix to the so-called “free-rider” issue, all in play at the same point in time. These two reports have comments from Chairman Ben Albritton Jr, speaking to us after his visit with …

In these two reports, comments from Patrick Gomes, National Coordinator for the Citrus Health Response Plan (CHRP), from a recent conference call with interested parties where CHRP officials offered updates about the program and enforcement activities related to it. In the first report below, he discusses new HLB finds in the Florida panhandle and elsewhere. In the second cut, Gomes …