Ministry of Agriculture Monitoring Citrus Industry

The citrus industry continues to grapple with low productivity, dwindling farmhands, as well as lack of financing. These challenges are compounded by citrus greening, so much so that the 2018/2019 crop fell by almost fourteen percent when compared to the previous year. But today when News Five caught up with Minister of Agriculture Godwin Hulse, he said G.O.B. is aware of the situation and that he wouldn’t declare it a crisis. 

Godwin Hulse

Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture

“We’ve been deep in it to be honest with you. CPBL needs a certain volume to remain stable and economical and that is important. There is some exportation going into Guatemala which is threatening to undercut that. Again, we have met with people, we’ve look at several things: one, how we can support the industry to get over the HLB by introducing tolerant varieties with concerns, of course. But more fundamentally, it is always the players you have to convince. We had to convince the small cane farmers that it is in his interest even though prices are low not to deviate because then you undercut yourself. We trying to encourage the small fisher that yes you may get a better price by selling to somebody private, but you are undercutting yourself in the long run. We are doing the same in citrus. We don’t see it as a crisis; it will work itself out.”