HuangLongBing – Wait what?

“Don’t be afraid to take a chance, that’s where the fruit is.” – H. Jackson Browne

Good morning investors,

Yes, Huanglongbing. You are reading that correctly. And be prepared to listen to it much more often. No, I don’t mean Long Duck Dong, the crazy Asian exchange student from the classic 80s movie Sixteen Candles.

We are talking about a disease that is sweeping Florida at breakneck speeds and is now imposing its will on Brazil.

This growing pandemic is slowly but surely destroying lives from Sao Palo to Indian River, Florida to Hunan China, and there is little in its way to stop or slow it.

You may have heard of Huanglonbing by its most commonly used name, citrus greening. A disease transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, a small insect, that causes citrus trees to turn yellow, the fruit never ripens, and ultimately the death of the tree.

It is putting Brazilian citrus growers out of work and has just destroyed about 5% of Florida’s crop (up from what was previously estimated in October). This disease is on its way to wipe out the global citrus industry in just a decade, unless it is stopped. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a solution at the moment (well, there might be, and we’ll talk about that in a moment).

This bacterial disease is now present in 100% of Florida’s citrus producing counties and affects a $ 13 billion industry in the US alone. It is a serious problem. The cost of your daily orange juice is about to skyrocket … and yes, we plan to make money as it happens. We will discuss our strategy shortly.

Now that the entire Florida crop is in quarantine, our friends in Brazil are starting to see horrible effects on their crops. So far, only about 1% of its 215 million citrus trees have been affected. But heed my words; the Brazilian crop will also be quarantined, and possibly fail, driving the prices of oranges and orange juice through the roof.

A whopping 53% of the world’s frozen concentrated orange juice is produced in Brazil. As this disease begins to spread and wipe out more and more police officers, not only will the price of orange juice increase, but the quality and quantity of juice we obtain will suffer greatly. Enjoy the cup of DO now while you can. It may not taste as sweet and silky next year.

“In short, the industry that Florida made, which is synonymous with Florida, which is a staple on every American breakfast table, is totally under threat … If we don’t find a cure, it will eliminate the citrus industry.” – Florida Senator Bill Nelson.

In 2012, an agricultural analyst at the University of Florida noted that between 2006 and 2012 (the disease first appeared in 2005), citrus greening has adversely affected Florida’s economy by a whopping $ 4.5 billion. , with an estimated cost of 8,000 jobs. Last year, Florida had its smallest harvest in about 30 years.

If you recall, there were NO hurricanes or deep frosts in Florida last year. The poor harvest is almost entirely due to greening. Next year it will get worse. Approximately 76,000 people work in the Florida citrus industry, I feel for every one of them at this time.

How to stop huanglongbing

For the past few years, agricultural scientists have thrown the kitchen sink into the greening problem, and nothing seems to be working. They’ve tried everything from bactericides to destroy germs to trying to eradicate the Asian citrus psyllid with insecticides and … well, nothing much.

There are some scientists who believe that the only way to prevent the disease from completely destroying the ENTIRE global citrus industry is by genetically modifying citrus trees. There is no reason for us to debate GM foods here, let’s just show that even if they were 100% safe, there is a big problem.

We would have to eradicate all citrus trees on earth and then replant the world with transgenic trees … But seedlings take years to develop and mature to the point where they bear fruit. So we’ll pretty much be SOL every morning on the juice front.

And the controversy around GMOs is very likely to hold back any progress on that front anyway. So there has to be something better, a way to fix this without cheating with the DNA of the orange trees. And there could be.

Before we talk about this possible solution (and trust me, it has great promise and best of all, we can invest in it)

In the next issues, we will present our profit game plan for Huanglongbing.

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste” – Rahm Emanuel