Florida citrus industry representatives and UF/IFAS faculty members visit citrus groves of Citricos Ceiba farm near Caimito, Artemisa Province, Cuba, 2003. By the early 1990s, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the loss of Cuba’s preferential trade arrangements, the citrus groves of the Citricos Ceiba state farm had fallen into neglect. Agricultural inputs were largely unavailable, vines covered the trees, tall weeds surrounded them and citrus production was very low. In February of 1994, the “9 de Abril” UBPC cooperative was established, becoming one of 6 such cooperatives on what were formerly state-managed lands of the Citricos Ceiba state farm. With more control over the land, the budget, and especially the management of work, the cooperative instituted a new management system in their citrus groves. By early 2003, the cooperative had 496 members, up from the initial 150 in 1994. The productivity of the principal crop, grapefruit, increased from 13 mt/ha during the 1993-94 harvest to 39.6 mt/ha in 2003-04, which was close to Florida’s average grapefruit yield that season. Photograph by Fred Royce. Guest curators Fred Royce and William Messina.
