Tifton, GA |

In Tifton recently, citrus growers gathered for their annual conference. This year’s theme: “Growing Georgia’s Citrus Future” – a fitting one, as attendees got to hear from experts and industry professionals on how to keep the citrus industry thriving in the state for years to come.

“It’s not only a membership meeting, but it’s a conference to talk about the challenges that Georgia Citrus has had and just how we can work to cultivate success. And it’s important to come and, network, not only network but just hear about the latest innovation and technology and what other people are experiencing; that’s how you grow and that’s how you learn is to hear from others and try to not make the same mistakes and come up with ways to solve problems,” says Lindy Savelle, Executive Director of the Georgia Citrus Association.

One problem that’s on the minds of most producers is citrus greening, which has decimated more than eighty percent of Florida’s citrus industry, however there is research being done that will hopefully eliminate the disease and will greatly benefit the industry in Georgia.

“It was four or five years before we realized we had it. By then it had spread throughout the entire state and the Florida Department of Agriculture declared that it was not able to be eradicated. We were going to have to try to live with it. As we’ve seen, that has been very, very difficult to do. We do have a number of therapies, though, that are working, and these are therapies that we hope are going to keep our industry alive long enough to get to where this tree of the future, this resistant tree, or a tree that’s more tolerant is going to bail us out once and for all, but what I mean for Georgia is that you’re going to be the beneficiary of this long runway. In other words, you have many years before your disease is going to become endemic, if it ever gets to that point. And my message today was, don’t let it get there. Your goal needs to be eradication. You can still do it,” says Rick Dantzler, C.O.O. of the Citrus Research & Development Foundation.

However, despite those concerns, Savelle says growers are still optimistic about what the future holds for the industry, as she explained there is some excitement around expanding from just being a fresh fruit industry to possibly a juicing one.

“I just see that this industry in Georgia is going to continue to grow. Continue to diversify. We are likely going to have a window of opportunity to go into the juicing industry as well as the fresh fruit industry. Florida has become known more for its juice industry, whereas Georgia has been fresh fruit, but I see that kind of turning the corner a little bit. And it’s not only South Georgia, but it’s North Florida that we’re joining forces together to kind of make this a regional citrus industry and I think those are all good things. Anytime you can collaborate with another state and have a bigger footprint, that’s a good thing,” says Savelle.

By: John Holcomb