Delegates attending Citrus Australia’s Citrus Technical Forum will receive a unique insight into the Argentinian citrus industry, with Beatriz Stein announced as a keynote speaker for the March event.
Stein is the director of the Citrus Sanitation Centre, which is responsible for the provision of certified citrus material for northwest Argentina.
She has seen firsthand her country’s re-entry into several important export markets – assessing the arrival of lemons from Tucuman to Japan and evaluating the quality of lemons in the US, a market that has recently reopened to fruit from northwest Argentina.
The Latin American nation produced 3.27m tonnes of citrus in 2015/16, making it the world’s ninth largest citrus growing country. Its strength lies in lemons, producing around 70 per cent of the Southern Hemisphere crop and 22 per cent of all lemons globally.
However, the industry is not immune to common challenges being faced by citrus producers around the globe, with huanglongbing disease (HLB) and the citrus psyllid (ACP) present in Argentina.
Only one of the country’s two primary citrus growing regions has both ACP and HLB, prompting the other to survey closely for the diseases.
“HLB positive plants were detected in commercial orchards one year ago. This is maybe why HLB has not yet had an impact on production and exports,” Stein explained.
Efforts to slow down or stop the spread of ACP and HLB in Argentina have included an education and vehicle control campaign that prevents the shipping of unprocessed fruit across province borders.
Meanwhile,Lluís Palou has been announced as akeynote speaker on the postharvest programme at the forum.
Based at the Postharvest Technology Centre at IVIA in Valencia, Spain,Palou has extensive experience in applied research and extension on postharvest pathology of citrus.
Palou's work has recently concentrated on alternative treatments to conventional chemical fungicides for the control of major postharvest diseases of fresh citrus.
While in Australia, Palou will also work with researchers from NSW Department of Primary Industries, including senior research scientist John Golding, who is leading a Hort Innovation-funded postharvest project.
“We’re excited to see what Lluís is doing in Spain regarding reduced fungicide use,” Golding said.
“Spain still uses some postharvest chemicals but have increased use of non-fungicide treatments. They reduce decay in fruit and also reduce chemical use.Lluís has done a lot of work using non-chemicals and it’s this knowledge and application which we want to learn.'
The Technical Forum is being heldat the Adelaide Convention Centre on6-7March.
