Growers Reap Record $909-Million Crop : Harvest: The 1991 report ranks the agriculture area as the state’s 10th largest, but the ’92 outlook is less promising. Prices are weaker and Valencia orange yield is small.

Ventura County growers harvested a record $909-million crop in 1991, the county’s top agriculture official said Friday.

The 1991 figures, released in the Agricultural Commissioner’s Annual Crop Report, represent a $61-million increase over 1990’s gross agricultural sales. Lemons were the county’s top producing crop, followed by strawberries and Valencia oranges.

But the December, 1990, freeze, which sent citrus prices and revenue soaring, also destroyed an estimated $128 million in Ventura County crops and trees and knocked 5,000 to 6,000 acres of frost-damaged orchards out of production until next year, said Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail.

“If it were not for the freeze, I am fairly confident that we could have seen a $1-billion crop report,” McPhail said.

The 1991 report ranks Ventura County as the 10th largest agriculture county in the state, said Jim Tippett, state statistician at the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Although the figures were not final, Tippett said that the San Joaquin Valley counties were the top three producers. Fresno County grossed $2.6 billion, followed by Tulare County with $1.9 billion and Kern County with $1.5 billion. Ventura County ranked 11th in 1990.

McPhail said, however, that the outlook for the 1992 crop is less promising. Prices are not as strong, the San Joaquin Valley’s citrus crop that was almost nonexistent last year is back on the market and the county’s Valencia orange crop is small.

“Prices are just not very good at all this year,” McPhail said. “If things don’t pick up, next year’s crop report could be down.”

As in previous years, 1991 lemons were the top-grossing commodity with a harvest of nearly $206 million, up from $175 million the year before.

Despite heavy losses taken by some growers, those whose lemon crops survived were rewarded with soaring prices due to decreased supplies.

“From January, 1991, until September, Ventura County was the only source of supply,” said Samuel Mayhew, production manager at Oxnard Lemon Co., one of the county’s largest lemon packers. “1991 was a record year that I doubt we will ever see again.”

Fresh lemons, which drew an average of $18 for a 38-pound carton last year, are drawing about $14 a carton this year, Mayhew said. Strawberries, which suffered no long-term effects from the freeze, kept their traditional spot as the county’s second-largest crop with nearly $131 million in gross revenue. McPhail said strawberry prices this year are only “so-so.”

Valencia oranges more than doubled in revenue from 1990, grossing more than $105 million in 1991 to become the county’s third-largest crop.

Valencias benefited from the same circumstances as the lemons. This year, however, the Valencia crop is small and may not compete well with the other areas that are back in production, McPhail said.

He said the county’s farm labor work force of about 22,000, which lost half its jobs to the freeze, has not yet reached full strength. Only about 17,000 farm workers are employed compared to the 20,000 to 22,000 workers on the job during a normal spring.

McPhail said the number of irrigated acres in the county declined by about 1,500 acres, maintaining the same pace of the last several years. Acreage was about 103,000, down from 104,921 irrigated acres in 1990. Farmland that is not irrigated--where cattle are out to pasture or where oat hay is grown during rainy years--accounted for between 200,000 to 300,000 acres, McPhail said.

Supervisor John K. Flynn, who joined McPhail at a press conference called in Santa Paula to release the report, said the county must protect the remaining acreage to ensure that the county’s largest single industry remains viable.

Instead of building more houses and public works projects, such as the planned Ventura County Jail, on cultivated land, the county’s officials and residents should build taller buildings to accommodate growth or develop hillsides, he said.

Flynn said the agricultural production in the county can be divided into three areas, with the most productive Oxnard Plain responsible for $400 million in gross revenue, the Santa Clara River Valley producing about $300 million and the Las Posas Valley accounting for the remaining $200 million.

Top 10 Ventura County Crops

All money figures are in millions

1991 Gross 1990 Gross Crop Value Value Change Lemons $205.9 $175.0 +$30.9 Strawberries 130.7 126.4 +4.3 Valencia Oranges 105.1 51.1 +54,0 Nursery Stock 96.1 113.9 -17.8 Celery 76.1 84.4 -8.3 Avocados 34.0 53.3 -19.3 Lettuce 27.6 24.5 +3.1 Cut Flowers 25.3 27.5 -2.2 Broccoli 15.5 8.2 +7.3 Navel Oranges 9.4 6.8 +2.6