Home > Industry Issues > Labor and Production > Mechanical Harvesting

Mechanical Harvesting

Many leaders in the Florida citrus industry agree that Mechanical Harvesting is very important to the future of the industry.

The Florida Department of Citrus established the Citrus Harvesting Research Advisory Council to oversee the research and development in the area of harvesting mechanisms.

The purpose of the Harvesting Program is to enable the Florida Citrus industry to attain and maintain a harvesting cost level which is competitive with the global citrus industry, while maintaining quality.

This can only be achieved by greatly increasing harvesting productivity and reducing costs for each common type of citrus grove. The Program is facilitating the development of several harvesting systems for groves that range from low to high tree planting density, and are culturally designed so that hand pickup, machine pickup, or simultaneous catching of harvested fruit can be practiced. Four of these are now available for commercial harvesting. Harvest rates of 10 to 1,000 trees per hour are possible, depending on the grove design and the useable harvesting system. Cost reductions of 20 to 75% can be realized.

Fruit abscission compounds are being developed to provide selectivity when harvesting Valencia oranges, and to maximize fruit removal and harvester speed.”

2008 FDOC Citrus Harvesting Council Members

Carson Futch – Chairman
John Whitehead – Vice Chairman
Dave Crumbly
Joe L Davis Jr
William Elliott
Jan Gowland
Charles W Harrison Jr
Paul Meador
Mitch Willis

For the latest information on Mechanical Harvesting from the University of Florida/IFAS, visit http://citrusmh.ifas.ufl.edu/index.asp