Earlier this year, the California Department of Food and Agriculture mailed letters to about 6,000 citrus farmers, trucking companies and others involved in shipping commercial citrus, informing them of new rules about transporting the fruit.
The rule requires citrus being moved in open truck beds to be covered with a tarp to avoid the spread of the disease-carrying Asian citrus psyllid. While the rule requires such precautions if driving out of a state-designated quarantine area, there is a new requirement for truckers to do this while moving within those quarantine areas as well.
That goes for whether a truck is going hundreds of miles, a quarter mile or even to a neighboring grove if the vehicle enters or crosses a state or county road, said Nawal Sharma, environmental program manager for the CDFA’s emergency quarantine program.
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