Storm Ruins as Much as 10% of Fresno Crops : Agriculture: One expert predicts state’s output of nectarines, peaches and plums will now be 70% below 1994 levels.

As much as 10% of California’s plums, peaches and nectarines may have been ruined by a freak hailstorm this week in Fresno County, according to early estimates Friday from state agricultural officials.

The damage is the latest setback to the Central Valley agriculture industry, which has been periodically deluged by rain and high winds since January.

“When will it ever stop?” asked Gary Van Sickle, field director for the California Tree Fruit Agreement, a trade group for the three crops. “It’s just been one storm after another.”

Farmers in Fresno County grow as much as half the state’s production of peaches, plums and nectarines. Van Sickle estimated that a Thursday afternoon hailstorm destroyed between 5% and 10% of this year’s output of the three crops.

Counting earlier storm damage, California’s total production of peaches, plums and nectarines will be at least 70% below 1994 levels, Van Sickle predicted. According to the California Farm Bureau, the 1994 harvest was worth nearly $220 million to farmers in Fresno County alone.

Less extensive damage was also reported Friday to table grapes, tomatoes and red and yellow onions in the Fresno region.

“Though [the damage] is sporadic around Fresno County, it has hit a wide swath,” Bill Allison, manager of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, reported from his car phone as he toured the damaged areas Friday. “I’ve seen some plums that were scarred pretty horribly and won’t be marketable, as well as pistachios and almonds.”

Hail up to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, along with three-quarters of an inch of rain, drenched some areas in as little as eight minutes, according to several farmers.

Hail slices through the tender skin of ripe fruit, allowing the invasion of organisms that cause what farmers call brown rot. Less-ripe fruit may be damaged but with wounds that can heal, allowing the fruit to be sold, though at lower prices.

Bill Conrad, who farms 100 acres of fruit trees at Reedley, 25 miles southeast of Fresno, estimates he lost three-quarters of his fruit in Thursday’s storm.

“The plums we were going to pick [today], they are probably 95% damaged,” Conrad said. “It’s a little early to tell the damage to our later varieties. Under utility grade, you can pack fruit if the wound heals, but packing houses are having trouble selling that grade this year.”

State officials estimate that relentless storms have caused roughly $750 million in damage to California crops since January.

Resulting shortages have brought some of the highest consumer produce prices in recent memory. Lettuce hit $2 a head or more in some stores. South Carolina tomatoes are in most of the nation’s supermarkets now--during a season normally dominated by tomatoes from the San Joaquin Valley, where the fruit is maturing about three weeks late, said Ed Beckman, president of California Tomato Board.

“Have they thought of having locusts next?” said Timothy S. Ramey, a food industry analyst with C.J. Lawrence/Deutsche Bank Securities Corp. in New York. Ramey predicted that the storm could bring shortages of peaches, plums and nectarines to consumers.

Andrew Hatch, a U.S. Department of Agriculture market watcher, said prices for peaches, plums and nectarines held steady Friday on the Los Angeles wholesale market but could start to rise if the damage turns out to be as extensive as feared.