2017-18 navel season

The 2017-18 season is rapidly approaching and should prove to be a banner year.  Although the crop is off from last year by 8% to 10%, fruit size and quality are as good as we have seen in a while.  

We were blessed with abundant rain fall this past winter and it has made our job of farming this crop a lot easier.  The results are healthy trees and good sized fruit to start the season.  Early testing show that the start of the navel season could be a week behind last season which would put the start around the 18th of October.  The 2017 valencias will finish about that time so hopefully there will be no gap in supply.  We will know more about the eating quality when we get closer to harvest in October, stay tuned...

China reopens to California Citrus

California Citrus Exporters,

The California Citrus Quality Council (CCQC) is contacting you to advise the industry that USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHS) has signed an agreement with China’s quarantine regulatory authority (AQSIQ) to reopen the Chinese market to California citrus effective today.  The agreement will be valid for two years, covering the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 seasons.   If necessary, an additional agreement will be signed for the 2016-2017 season depending on an evaluation of the previous two seasons.  Additionally, Chinese technical officers will visit California in the first year to “conduct supervision and inspection” of Phytophthora mitigation measures applied to California citrus.

To comply with the agreement, the California industry must implement the following measures:

• ·         Skirt prune trees
• ·         Harvest only fruit that is higher than 50 cm (20 inches) from the ground
• ·         Monitor for Phytophthora
• ·         Apply at least one copper application after the first rainfall
• ·         Make preventative copper applications based on rainfall, temperature and Phytophthora infection rate
• ·         Packinghouses must screen and remove decayed fruit
• ·        
• ·        

We expect AQSIQ to closely monitor California citrus shipments on arrival, not only for Phytophthora infections, but pesticide residues.  We urge packinghouses to take every precaution to ensure that shipments meet all of China’s regulatory requirements.

CCQC, Sunkist and Citrus Mutual would like to acknowledge and thank APHIS and UC Riverside’s Jim Adaskaveg for their outstanding contributions in reopening the market.

Please contact me by telephone at (530) 885-1894 or via e-mail at jcranney@calcitrusquality.org if you have questions or need additional information.

Regards,

Jim

California Citrus Quality Council

853 Lincoln Way, Suite 206

Auburn, CA 95603

Tel:  (530) 885-1894

Fax: (530) 885-1546

James R. Cranney, President: jcranney@calcitrusquality.org

Carleen Price, Executive Assistant: cprice@calcitrusquality.org

http://www.calcitrusquality.org

Employee training, G.A.P. audits and export requirements

Thank you to all of our Growers who participated in last month’s Heat Safety Training and Tractor and ATV safety classes.  The turnout was very good for both meetings with most employers and their employees attending.  We will continue to hold these meetings every year.  Thank you to Buckman-Mitchell Insurance for sponsoring the two meetings.

Many of the preliminary Good Agricultural Practices (G.A.P.) audits are complete and most others have scheduled their audits.  We thank all of you for taking the time to become Global GAP certified. We realize that you are all doing most of this work anyway as part of your daily routine, but to document and allow the audits is very helpful in our efforts to stay at the forefront of ensuring our customers that they are receiving a safe product that is sustainably grown.

Please remember that all blocks need to be skirt pruned in order to participate in export shipments for the 2014-15 year.  Specifically, fruit for export to China cannot be picked under 20 inches but we believe this is a good requirement for all export destinations.  Copper sprays will again be required and we will keep you posted on the timing of these sprays. 

Summer 2014

Summer is definately here.  This past week saw record and near record tempatures with highs around 108 degrees f.  The good news is the overnight low tempatures still dipped into the low 70's so we are still seeing fruit growth. 

This year's fruit set looks good, but is too early to tell what will stick on the tree through the summer months.  A lot of pruning and irrigating are the main focus as well as weed control, always weed control. 

Most grower's thoughts are on the current drought and how well the wells will hold up.  Many of us have purchsed water at substantial costs (in many cases, doubling our farming typical farming costs)in case wells do not hold up.  Some area cannot receive purchased water and they must rely on their ground water.  Many growers are pushing out blocks of otherwise good orchards due to the lack of water as well.

Agriculture has done much to be substainable regarding water, and we now need help from our elected officials to help free up some of the water that has been taken away over the past 15 years for fish.  We need not only short term solutions but long term solutions such as additional dams.

Please conserve water as we do and have done for many years.  We are  family businesses, employing many people and trying to get by in this time of crisis.  WE thank you for your help.

Deja Vu

Spring has decended on the valley with the sweet smell of citrus blossom. We are heading into the home stretch of our navel harvest and will soon begin our valencia harvest.

This past season has been a busy one, with a cold winter that took much time and resources to hold back any frost damage to a very dry year that has left us with very little snow pack and low levels in our lakes. But every year has its challenges and this one is no different. When you farm for as living, you must deal with what Mother Nature gives you, both good and bad; and this season has seen both good and bad.

If you had not noticed, this is the post from one year ago, somethings don't change.

Another very cold year with a little more fruit lost to frost than in the previous season.  It was also even dryer.  We have made it through the year but our biggest concern is the ongoing drought.

Much of the fruit grown in this part of the stae relies on surface water, or water from the dams and reservoirs.  But with less than 50% of our normal rainfall for two consecutive years, we have very little surface water to work with and must use our wells. 

We are lucky to have ground water from our wells but we do not know how long they will hold up as the ground water is being pumped by all growers. This would not be such an issue if the govermnment would allow current dams to be raised and additional dams to be built to hold water for these drought cycles. It was only a few years ago that the dams were flowing over the top due to heavy rains, and if we would have had additional storage, we could possibly get through these drought years.

I do understand the environmentalists desire for water for the fish, but on drought years, even the fish do not have enough water and dams would help them as well.