High and Dry: Raisins Are In

That big sigh of relief you just heard probably came from somewhere in the neighborhood of Fresno. After short harvests the last two years and some touch-and-go weather last month, the raisin crop is in.

“The 1997 crop is made,” says Barry Kriebel, president of Sun-Maid Growers of California, the huge raisin cooperative.

About 80% of the raisins in the world are grown in California, and most of those come from within 30 miles of Fresno. According to preliminary projections, the 1997 harvest will be about 350,000 tons. That’s a significant increase over last year’s 270,000 tons, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Carry-over stocks--raisins that remain in storage unsold from the year before--had virtually disappeared during the last two years. This is the first time since the mid-1980s that stocks have been this low. During the peak of the raisin glut, there had been as much as 150,000 tons carried over.

“The industry is beginning this crop year in one of tightest inventory positions in the last dozen years,” says Vaughan Koligian of the Raisin Bargaining Association, a trade association that establishes the opening wholesale market price for raisins. “There is no reserve from 1996 and the available inventory is 31% below the previous year.”

Prices for raisins, which went up slightly in last year’s short harvest, should stay about the same, the big harvest being offset by the small amount in storage. After huge harvests of both table grapes and wine grapes, it stood to reason that raisins would also be up. But nothing is taken for granted in raisin country.

That’s because most California raisins are still sun-dried. They are picked and spread on white paper trays between the rows of vines and left to shrivel for two to three weeks.

During that time, of course, any moisture can be disastrous. And with El Nin~o looming, there were some anxious moments in Fresno--particularly after a short spell of rain and high humidity in mid-August.

“With the threat of rains and all, it was a long couple of weeks,” Kriebel says. “But now the drying season has been completed, and we’ve got plenty of raisins for people to use.”

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Carolyn Olney of the Southland Farmers’ Market Association reports that See Canyon Fruit Ranch near San Luis Obispo has a wide variety of apples, including Gold Rush, Missouri Pippin, Winesap, Northern Spy, Spitzenberg, Mountain Red and Red Gold, a cross between Red and Golden Delicious. They are at the Santa Monica market on Wednesday, San Luis Obispo on Thursday, Santa Barbara on Saturday and Hollywood on Sunday.