ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A major grower said this week it is abandoning its citrus growing operations, reflecti
ng the headwinds Florida’s signature crops are facing following a series of hurricanes and tree diseases.
Alico Inc. announced this week that it plans to wind down its citrus operations after the current crop is harves
ted later this year. About 3,400 citrus acres will be managed b
y third-party caretakers for another season through 2026.
There may be hope yet for an effective way to combat citrus greening.
Researchers at the University of Florida recently published a study
that shows that a genetically edited citrus tree can produce a protein that is deadly to the baby Asian citrus psyllid
s, the bugs that tr
ansmit the disease.
“We are trying to deploy a biotechnological solution that is sustainable, easy for growers to deploy and rep
laces the need for spraying insecticides,” Lukasz Stelin
ski, an entomology professor at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research
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and Education Center, said in a news release from the university.
The gene normally occurs in a soil-borne bacterium called B
acillus thuringiensis (Bt), UF noted. This gene provides instructions for the new citrus tree on how to make this protein.
So far, the researchers have developed the modified tree only in the lab and the greenhouse. Now, they ho
pe to prove this method works in the field but are still a few years awa
y from that, Stelinski said in the release. They hope to begin testing the trees in about a year.
In the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology, the scientists said they developed a “sandwich feeding assay” that o
vercomes previous limitations on determining the effectiveness of the protein.
The Fort Myers-base
d company owns 53,371 acres across eight counties in Florida and 48,700 acres of oil, gas and mineral rights in the state. About a quarter of its land holdings will now be slotted for potentially developing commercial or residential projects in the near and long term future, the company said in a news release.
The company said its citrus production had declined by 73% over the past decade. The impact of Hurricanes Irma in 2017, Ian in 2022 and Milton in 2024 on trees already weakened from years of citrus greening disease “has led Alico to conclude that growing citrus is no longer economically viable for us in Florida,” said John Kiernan, Alico’s president and CEO.