If world agricultural authorities don’t get their act together soon enough, your morning orange juice may disappear from the supermarket shelves – for good.
This is how critical the situation has become in the citrus growing world. In the past decades, a disease called Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as “citrus greening” disease, has been devastating orchards in Asia, the Americas and several African countries. Although world production has increased in recent years thanks to strong market demand and new plantings, the disease’s relentless expansion is leading growers to fear the worst.
The economic impacts are dramatic in some countries. In Brazil, production has fallen by more than 20%, 60% in Guadeloupe and and plummeted by more than 90% in Florida.
