Swingeing cuts are being put in place at the Florida Department of Citrus and the hardest hit projects are the grapefruit marketing effort and research. The proposals came last week from new executive director Dan Gunter after the FDOC’s governing body, the Florida Citrus Commission, rejected grower-levy increases and voted in Gunter’s planned cuts.
Grapefruit juice advertising and promotion - mainly in Europe and Japan - is likely to be reduced by $1.7million. The cuts also included shaving $2.3 million from the scientific research budget, which includes programmes to improve operations in groves, packhouses and juice processing plants.
The program to develop a mechanical harvesting system for citrus fruit took the biggest cut from $1.8 million to $750,000. The commission rejected a harvesting advisory council's proposal to restore $350,000 in cuts.
The cuts in all research programs wiped out $340,000 in funding for the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Most of that money would have gone to the IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.
Meanwhile, a revolutionary citrus-peeling project developed by the FDOC and Del Monte Fresh Produce of North America has fallen by the wayside after Del Monte officials agreed that the peeling system would never become commercially viable. Market research had shown there might be a place for ready-peeled citrus alongside prepared salads and other pre-packaged lines.
No comments yet