Most people are not aware that citrus nursery entities are the most regulated in the United States. As a matter of fact, citrus nurseries are more regulated than cannabis nurseries, vegetable nurseries, and every other type of plant nursery that operates in the United States.
Citrus nurseries are inspected by FDACS (state level) and the USDA (federal level) every 30 days. Both agencies perform visual inspections on all trees located within the nursery, as well as structural inspections.
Why so much regulation on citrus nurseries?
Citrus greening was confirmed in Miami in 2005 and quickly spread to 12 counties by June 2006. A mandated law forced all citrus nurseries to enclose all propagation nursery structures without any form of financial assistance being offered to citrus nurseries. More than half of the nurseries at the time went out of business. The nurseries that chose to conform to the mandates were faced with significant financial burdens due to building new greenhouse structures or modifying existing greenhouse structures that would be approved by FDACS and the USDA. Some of the nurseries to this day have never financially recovered from the forced mandates of 2006.
Citrus canker is another disease that led to the mandates. Citrus canker has a history in Florida dating back to 1912 and was eradicated several times. The last introduction occurred in Miami in 1995 and unfortunately due to weather events, such as the hurricanes of 2004, Citrus canker spread to 25 counties throughout South and Central Florida.
The finding of either citrus canker or citrus greening within a citrus nursery triggers an automatic quarantine. In the case of greening or the Asian Citrus Psyllid being found, it’s an indefinite quarantine. Both diseases are known to have originated from Asia and are established in many citrus growing regions around the world. Both diseases failed to be contained to the Miami area in which they both were found.
The ineffectiveness of the agencies responsible for containing, properly inspecting, and excluding pathogens has led to overregulation for Florida citrus nurseries and a declining citrus industry for growers. A once prospering Florida citrus industry has been diminished to 330,000 acres and thousands of jobs have been lost across the citrus industry.
The loss of more than 600,000 acres of citrus is correlated to nursery tree propagations declining by 80%. Citrus nursery propagation is a specialized business that is severely on the decline and has been negatively impacted by overregulation, lack of financial assistance, and loss of acreage within the state. It is not sustainable to operate in structures that are overregulated and expensive to build and maintain. Ineffective regulation comes at a price, which is not cheap, for Florida citrus nurseries and needs to be reformed and revised.
