Record Broken by $50 Million : County Agriculture Had Big Year in ’84

San Diego County agricultural production catered more to the senses and less to the stomach last year as it broke 1983 dollar records by about $50 million, county Department of Agriculture officials reported Friday.

Indoor ornamental plants and greenhouse and field-grown flowers accounted for $191 million of the $499.7 million value of 1984 county agricultural production.

Eggs came in second in dollar value at $64.6 million, followed by avocados at $59.4 million and tomatoes at $37.7 million. But all three products showed substantial drops in value from 1983 levels.

Ray Rinder, assistant county agricultural commissioner, said fluctuations in the price of eggs and a sell-off of laying hens during periods of low prices contributed to a drop of 17 million dozen and $4.4 million in value despite slightly higher average prices in 1984 over 1983.

Indoor ornamentals, which include delicate foliage plants such as philodendrons, anthuriums and ferns suitable only for indoor display, shot up in value from $29 million in 1983 to $66 million in 1984, but Rinder said that most of the increase was merely a bookkeeping change. A special state-county agricultural acreage survey upped the number of acres of greenhouses dedicated to growing of indoor decorative plants from 140 to 330 acres, accounting for most of the increased value, he explained.

A drop in 1984 tomato acreage was offset by an increase in price last year. The 1983 crop brought $40.3 million on 5,500 acres harvested. Last year’s crop brought $37.7 million for 2,900 acres harvested.

Carnations showed an increase in production over 1983, from 52 million to 72.4 million blooms and a resulting increase in value of $2.3 million.

Avocado production suffered from another bumper crop in 1984, Rinder said. The 160,600-ton 1984 crop brought in $59.4 million compared to 1983’s 141,500-ton crop which was valued at $76.4 million. The difference, Rinder explained, was a $370 per ton price in 1984, compared to $540 a ton in 1983.

Milk production dropped in value--from $42.8 million to $30.3 million--as the number of dairies and dairy cattle continued to decline. Rinder said that the county once had at least 60 dairies, but the number is now about half that.

Citrus crops made a strong showing in 1984 to balance off the diminishing value of avocados, Rinder said. Valencia oranges rose in value from $18.8 million to $25.4 million and grapefruit production doubled from 14,000 tons to 33,700 tons.

Less acreage and lower prices--two continuing trends--combined to bring strawberry production down from 30,100 tons to 26,600 tons and the crop’s value down from $25.7 million to $18.6 million, Rinder pointed out.

Kathleen Thuner, county agricultural commissioner, said the gross value of farm products, which totalled slightly below half a billion dollars in 1984, does not reflect the total economic impact of agriculture on the county’s economy. For every dollar value of an agricultural product, the county benefits by $2.16, according to a multiplier factor worked out by the University of California.

That brings the actual economic impact of 1984’s county agricultural production to over $1 billion, she said.

The $50-million increase over the 1983 crop does not mean that farmers and ranchers earned that amount of extra profit, she pointed out in the recently released 1984 agriculture report. Most of the increase is due to increased production and processing costs, and only a small amount to increases in prices, she said.

In 1983 there were 74,928 acres in agricultural production in San Diego County, not including grazing land. In 1984 there were 77,447 acres in production. The difference is largely due to the special state-county agricultural census.