Agriculture Weathered Last Year’s Rainstorms

Despite devastating El Nino storms that caused $31 million worth of damage to Ventura County crops, the region’s agricultural industry remained vibrant last year, with crops dropping in value only slightly from the previous year.

Last year’s crops brought in $937 million, down from $942 million the previous year, a half-percent decrease.

“We did exceptionally well,” Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said during a news conference at his Santa Paula office Friday. “It could have been a disaster, and it wasn’t.”

In most counties statewide, crops dipped in value from 5% to 15% last year as a result of the unrelenting rain in the early months of 1998, McPhail said.

“We thought we would be somewhere in the middle,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a surprise because when we flew over the county after the storms, you could see the damage to the celery, but the crop ended up doing well, as did strawberries, nursery stock and tomatoes.”

Although lemons remained the county’s top crop in 1998, the crop suffered the largest drop in gross sales, plummeting $39 million. The unusually wet winter caused lemons to ripen faster and all at once, McPhail said. The overabundance of lemons caused prices to decrease.

To make matters worse, rain-soaked lemons rot at a fast rate, McPhail said. Their storage time is cut in half, from four months to two.

“Too much rain makes lemons absorb water faster and they get much bigger than normal,” McPhail said. “Because of the maturity problems, the quality we normally have wasn’t there last year.”

Strawberries, the county’s second-highest grossing crop, jumped in sales by $32 million from the previous year. The increase was a result of a longer than usual picking season, McPhail said.

The crop saw an increase in production from 152,000 tons to 171,316.

“Strawberries really came in like gangbusters,” McPhail said. “We have such diversity [of crops] in this county that El Nino aside, we were able to come through really well.”

Celery, the county’s No. 4 crop, also made gains in production and gross sales. Although the crop sustained severe damage last winter, it bounced back in the spring and summer.

The crop produced 415,375 tons last year, compared to 320,595 in 1997. It increased in gross revenue by $23 million.

Tomatoes, which increased in gross sales by about $3 million from the previous year, replaced peppers as the county’s tenth-highest-grossing crop. Officials attributed the increase to a large production of fresh tomatoes.

In addition to rain damage in early 1998, a pre-Christmas freeze at the end of 1998 caused $74 million worth of damage to crops in Ventura County. That will be reflected in the agriculture commission’s 1999 report, McPhail said.

“The areas that got zapped, got zapped very hard,” McPhail said of the crops destroyed during the freeze. “But the summer crops might make up for that.”

About 2,200 growers operate in Ventura County, overseeing about 300,000 acres of agricultural land.

Ventura County’s Top Crops in 1998

Crop: Gross value

Lemons: $178,700,000

Strawberries: $175,943,000

Nursery stock $124,772,000

Celery: $117,515,000

Avocados: $58,708,000

Valencia oranges: $43,483,000

Cut flowers: $36,817,000

Lettuce: $21,538,000

Broccoli: $18,394,000

Tomatoes: $16,253,000

Source: County Agriculture Commission

Yearly Crop Values

The value of Ventura County’s agricultural harvest from 1986 through this year:

1998: $937,139,000

1997: $942,326,000

1996: $851,931,000

1995: $921,818,000

1994: $851,983,000

1993: $848,100,000

1992: $725,460,000

1991: $909,906,000

1990: $852,616,000

1989: $805,977,000

1988: $785,860,000

1987: $669,273,000

1986: $613,030,000

Source: County Agriculture Commission