P. M. BRIEFING : Storms Destroy 22% of Raisin Crop

Three rainstorms late last month destroyed about 100,000 tons of San Joaquin Valley raisins, a Fresno County Farm Bureau official said today.

Jerald Rebensdorf, chairman of the bureau’s newly formed Raisin Committee, said the September storms dropped this year’s raisin crop to 353,902 tons from the original estimate of 450,000 tons.

However, he said the revised estimate was still well above the estimated 1989-90 trade demand of about 290,000 tons.

“It was going to be a huge crop, so the losses won’t affect the price of raisins to the consumer because there will still be more than enough to meet both retail and wholesale demand,” Rebensdorf said. “Individual growers were hurt, some of them badly, but the losses will not be reflected at the supermarket checkout stand.”

The Raisin Administrative Committee, which oversees the valley’s raisin crop marketing order, predicted that 53% of the crop that survived the rains will be sold directly for distribution and that 47% will be placed in reserve storage for sale after the 1989-90 selling period.

However, in response to requests by growers, the RAC has formed a subcommittee to seek a change in the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. rule that penalizes growers for plowing under unsalvageable rain-damaged raisins rather than delivering them to distilleries.