Florida Welcomes Grand Opening Of New Citrus Repository
June 17, 2014 
Photo by Jeffrey Weston Lotz
A new state-of-the art facility to improve the health of Florida’s endangered citrus industry is now open for business.
The Florida Citrus Repository at LaCrosse will expand the Citrus Germplasm Introduction Program, which provides a way to safely introduce healthy new citrus varieties into the state.
“More than half of Florida’s groves are infected with citrus greening, and citrus production is at a 30-year low,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
The opening of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ 20,000 square-foot facility will significantly increase production capacity to more than 20 new varieties each year. New varieties will match growers’ and consumers’ preferences of disease-tolerant, easy-to-peel and seedless citrus. All new varieties will go through an approval process that includes testing for pests and diseases.
The LaCrosse facility is opening three months after a new $200,000 citrus greenhouse opened in Apopka, and four months after the expansion of the state’s Dundee Biological Control Laboratory, which is integral to Florida’s fight against citrus greening. The laboratory rears a beneficial insect, Tamarixia radiata, which attacks the Asian citrus psyllid— the vector of citrus greening— for release throughout Florida’s citrus production areas.
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