COUNTYWIDE : Avocado Growers Rebounding From Costly 1990 Frost

Avocado growers in Ventura County are still feeling the effects of a crippling 1990 frost, but overall production in the state is expected to rebound this year, avocado trade officials said Monday.

A survey conducted by the California Avocado Commission showed the 1992 crop is expected to yield as much as 330 million pounds, 18% above last year’s crop, said Avi Crane, the commission’s vice president.

The yield in Ventura County should also improve, but partially because last year was a disaster, growers said.

As the current harvest nears completion, the effects of the December, 1990, freeze can still be felt in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, Crane said.

“The older trees are still taking a beating from the freeze,” said Tom Pecht, who farms 30 acres of avocados east of Oxnard.

With avocados needing up to 18 months to mature, the hard freeze in 1990 killed young fruit and the following year’s flowers on some trees, Pecht said.

“When the trees are damaged, you not only lose your crop, but the next crop as well,” he said.

Steve Barnard, president of Mission Produce in Oxnard, said damage from the “strange, cold breeze” was spotty, with two years’ worth of crops wiped out on some farms, while other growers survived the freeze in good shape.

Damage was greatest in the Ojai area, said Barnard, whose company ships 12% of the state’s crop.

Barnard predicted a bumper crop for next year, as the winter’s warm rains have produced a near-record number of fruit.