February 2007
14625 CR 672, Wimauma,FL 33598
(813) 634-0000

It's better to lose your pride to the one you love than to lose the one you love because of pride.
Happy Valentine's Day - Feb. 14

FEBRUARY  BIRTHDAYS
  5.....Bo Watson (retired)
 6.....Michael Andreu
 8.....Melissa Friedman
12.....Elena Santa Maria
13.....Marco Toapanta
14.....Nancy West
15.....Brent Harbaugh
15.....Yuanfu Ji
16.....Lynda Chandler
16.....Steven MacKenzie
20.....Tomas Hasing
21.....Tim Davis
23.....Betsy Roznik
27.....Jack Rechcigl

Tokyo Nogei High School...
In December 2006, GCREC was visited by high school students from Tokyo Nogei High School along with their assistant vice principal, Yuji "Nate" Nakamura and Walter Fernandez, and Ag teacher from Gaither High School.

GO GATORS!
You'll never know where you're going to find that Gator spirit - even in Egypt!

     The January Egypt mission was a follow-up to work the UF strawberry team performed there in the 1990s to establish a wintertime export (Europe) strawberry industry. The original work was part of a USAID commitment to Egypt to fulfill US obligations to the Camp David Egypt (Anwar Sadat)/Israel (Menachem Begin) agreement under President Jimmy Carter.
     Craig Chandler, Natalia Peres and Jim Price reviewed progress in the export production and made recommendations to achieve higher standards and efficiencies. Findings that emerged were that the strawberry export industry has made enormous progress and is competitive in the most select markets in UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and elsewhere, and that Egyptian growers really like the UF patented cultivars bred for the Plant City and Nile production latitude.
     The significant royalties from the Egyptian use of UF patented cultivars are returned to UF strawberry research. In the end, Egyptian growers, UF research and Florida strawberry growers benefit from the relationship between UF and the Egyptian strawberry industry. (Jim Price)