Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/40315
Southeastern peaches enter Mexican markets It's the first shipment from the Southeast since 1994. by Richard Lehnert F H-2A workers in the Titan Farms packing plant cheered when they found their peaches were going to their home country. or the first time since 1994, peaches from the southeastern United States moved into stores in Mexico in June this year. The breakthrough came after about five years of work by growers, the peach councils of Georgia and South Carolina, research entomologists, and officials at the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Mexican government. Under the new agreement, growers will conform to a protocol that assures Mexico that no fruit containing plum curculio or oriental fruit moth will enter their coun- try, where they are quarantine pests. Seventeen years ago, Mexico banned peach exports from the Southeast over concerns about these pests. So far, only Titan Farms at Ridge Spring, South Car- olina, shipped peaches to Mexico this year. Titan Farms owner Chalmers Carr III pushed hard for the agreement and was prepared when it came. ORCHARD REPLANT DISEASE AND NEMATODE CONTROL "Right now, Titan Farms is the only shipper," he said. "Last year, everyone was optimistic that we would get this deal through then, and they had lined up buyers. But we never got the market opened up. This year, we were more cautious. Many were not prepared to ship peaches when the market did open." The protocol peach "Right now, Titan Farms is the only growers must follow starts April 1, and at that time, marketing prospects did not look good. shipper." —Chalmers Carr III No worms Dan Horton, the peach industry entomologist at the University of Georgia, was involved in developing the with Telone* C-17 soil fungicide and nematicide (includes chloropicrin) CUSTOM ORCHARD FUMIGATION Len England/Dale England/Chris Ford 509 687-9572 Len, cell: 509-679-7124 Dale, cell: 509-860-9058 Chris, cell: 509 366-5180 customorchardfumigation@live.com 968 Lloyd Road • Manson, WA 98831 8 SEPTEMBER 2011 GOOD FRUIT GROWER *TRADEMARK OF DOW AGROSCIENCES LLC www.goodfruit.com Schedule your application OD application TODAY! richard lehnert