Value of County Crops Plunged by 20% in 1992 : Agriculture: Heavy storms and low prices from an orange glut are blamed. But farmers had braced for a bad year.

By MACK REED and STEPHANIE SIMON

May 15, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

The value of Ventura County’s crops plunged by one-fifth last year, as storm-damaged berries and low prices on a glutted orange market ended seven solid years of growth.

The county’s agricultural earnings sank 20%, from a record $910-million harvest in 1991 to a $722-million yield in 1992, according to the county agricultural commissioner’s annual report, released Friday.

Yet agricultural workers remained employed, because most growers still needed hands to tend their crops. And the overall Ventura County economy suffered no ill effects, as farmers had braced for a bad year by building up rainy-day bank accounts.

Battered by unusually wet weather, berry and citrus growers were hit hardest, Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said.

Last year’s “March Miracle” rains flooded strawberry and low-lying vegetable fields. Although the storms were good for tree crops, the waterlogged spring ended up wrecking the citrus market as well. Farmers harvested so many oranges and lemons that supply far outstripped demand, and prices plummeted.

Strawberries remained Ventura County’s second-biggest crop in 1992, just behind lemons and ahead of celery. But the rains bruised the berries so badly that growers were forced to unload an unusually high percentage to processing plants.

And because berries earmarked for jams or freezers always sell for less than fresh strawberries, the total dollar value of the crop dropped from $130 million in 1991 to $101 million last year, McPhail said.

Berry prices were so bad that some farmers just plowed under acres of fruit to fertilize their fields, instead of spending time and money to pick it, McPhail said.

In citrus groves, farmers saw their trees--badly damaged during the devastating winter freeze in 1990--rebound to produce a bumper crop. But ironically, the glut of oranges and lemons showed up as bad news for growers’ profit margins.

The value of Ventura County navels dropped a whopping 70%, Valencia oranges lost 60% of their value and lemon growers reaped 20% less for their crop in 1992.

Many orange growers stopped selling their fresh fruit in the depressed market and hauled thousands of truckloads straight to juice-processing plants, McPhail said. Some farmers uprooted several acres of older trees, determined to start afresh with younger groves that might produce better-quality citrus.

An abundance of avocados also caused prices to tumble for guacamole lovers, the report noted.

Despite the market slump, agricultural employment remained relatively steady and even increased in the fields and orchards, according to analyst Linda Reed of the California Employment Development Department.

While packing houses and processing plants in Ventura County employed an estimated monthly average of 1,841 workers in 1991 and 1,683 in 1992, farms and ranches employed approximately 15,516 workers in 1991 and 18,617 in 1992, state statistics show.

Growers also are more savvy than they were after a bad year in 1987, when local banks had to carry numerous loans that farmers could not afford to repay because of a price slump, said Marshall Milligan, president of the Ventura-based Bank of A. Levy.

“My perception is that over the last 10 years, the agricultural industry in Ventura County has become much more big business and much less the family ranch phenomenon that it used to be,” Milligan said.

“You have better-capitalized businesses responsible for the farming operation, and therefore they do have more of a cushion against the tough times,” he said. “They’ll still adjust and not spend as much during tough times, but it won’t show in the quality of the loan portfolio to the ag community, or in the delinquency rate.”

Moorpark lemon rancher Craig Underwood said that Underwood Ranches has done fairly well in the face of a price dive from $14-$16 per field box in 1991 to $5-$7 per box this year.

“Last year’s drop in lemon prices was significant, and nobody was happy about it, but it wasn’t what you’d call devastating,” Underwood said. “In farming, if you don’t have reserves to carry you through a year or two of bad prices, it’s not very good planning. You just have to build up reserves.”

Despite the dramatic drop in the dollar value of the county’s crops last year, McPhail said, “I think we can rebound in 1993--everything looks good so far.” This year’s rains occurred in the winter, before harvest season really got underway, he said.

But some growers said McPhail’s predictions may be too optimistic.

Strawberry grower Jaime Deardorff, who lost 40% of his crop to the winter rains, said that his plants have petered out, producing fewer and smaller berries--which could make 1993 even worse than last year.

The picking season for fresh berries has already ended this year, a full month earlier than usual, he said.

Ventura rancher Paul Leavens agreed, arguing that this year will be slow because of a typical alternate-year yield cycle for tree crops, which peaked with a bumper harvest last year.

“We lost money last year, all on the bottom line, between lemons, oranges and avocados, and we hope to break even this year, but it’s doubtful,” said Leavens, whose company owns 850 acres of citrus and avocado trees in Ventura County.

A heavy winter orange crop elsewhere in the state could mean low market prices for Leavens Ranches’ summer crops, he said.

“The price now is low, and also we’ve kind of tried to pinch our budget down a little,” he said. “We’re fortunate that we have good financing that sticks with us.”

Although Friday’s bad news confirmed what most growers had experienced first-hand last year, the statistics did not daunt them.

The elusive $1-billion annual yield mark, which Ventura County crops approached for the first time in 1991, is still within reach, McPhail said.

“People in agriculture don’t discourage real easily,” said McPhail. “Obviously there’s some concern out there, but I don’t think anyone is really worried about the future of agriculture in this county.”

Lemon grower Will Gerry of Camarillo agreed, saying, “We don’t have much control--we just grow our lemons year after year. And the more years you’re involved, the more cycles you go through.”

Total Crop Values (In Millions)1992: $722

1991: $910

1990: $852

1989: $806

1988: $785

1987: $669

1986: $613

1985: $551

1984: $580

1983: $476

Source: Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner

1992 Top Crops (In Millions)Lemons: $166