LABELLE, Fla — Florida's citrus industry's has seen multiple challenges, and with a new proposed budget, state leaders say they want to invest millions of dollars to save it.
The Senate's proposed a $200 million budget to help the citrus industry.
Ben Albritton, State Senate President, says that investment would support critical research, field trials, and tree replanting efforts to help Florida citrus growers address the impacts of citrus greening.
The goal is to increase production.
Click here to see what the money could mean for growers in our state.
Matt Joyner, CEO and Executive Vice President of Florida Citrus Mutual, tells me the proposed budget's exactly what growers need.
“I think this budget proposal is going to be huge for our industry, and it couldn’t come at a better time. We finally got tools, therapies, resistant tolerant trees, things that growers can deploy, and after what has been a rough spate of weather and two decades of greening," Joyner says.
Ron Mahan, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Tamiami Citrus, says he sees signs of improvement within the industry, but more needs to be done.
"This investment from the state is going to be critical for growers to be able to rebuild Florida's signatures industry," Mahan says.
Senator Albritton in a statement to FOX 4 says, "by implementing large-scale field trials, we will have a better understanding of the best practices for both the planting of new trees and the rehabilitation of exiting trees. We will leave no stone unturned. We're on the edge of something special. Florida citrus is making a comeback, one tree at a time."
If the budget is approved, negotiations will follow into the final weeks of the legislative session.
