Storms’ Toll on County’s Crops Put at $31 Million

Recent storms have left Ventura County growers with at least $31 million in crop damage, nearly double the amount of earlier estimates and the largest agricultural loss reported by any county in the state, officials said Monday.

Strawberry crops in the low-lying Oxnard Plain were the hardest hit, with damage estimated at $18 million. Celery was next with $4.2 million in damage, followed by lettuce at $2.5 million.

Officials warned that the damage estimates--which already exceed the $23 million reported after storms in 1995--are preliminary and could climb higher.

“I don’t expect any other county will go over us,” said David Buettner, chief deputy of the Ventura County Agricultural Commission.

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Updated figures will include crop failures attributed to fungus, standing water and nutrient deficiencies.

“We’ll continue to exceed any other county in the state,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “Other counties may have more acres, but don’t generate as much income as we do per acre.”

Even though the rain has stopped, growers such as Deardorff-Jackson Co. continue to struggle with production problems because planting has been delayed. At the same time, the growers must deal with pollination disturbances and mildew resulting from the rain.

“With the storms being this intense, it breaks the skin of strawberries and causes mold and mildew problems,” said Scott Deardorff, whose company plants about 1,200 acres of strawberries and other crops on the Oxnard Plain. “So we have to remove that fruit right away so it doesn’t spread throughout the entire field.”

Deardorff estimated he has lost 15% of strawberry production this season, but said he won’t know the full extent of the damage until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, consumers can expect to see significantly higher prices at grocery checkout stands for those crops hit the hardest.

“The most drastic price increase you’ll see will be with the strawberries,” Buettner said, adding that it is too soon to tell exactly how high the price will climb. “But there’s always a cap consumers are willing to spend.”

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On the upside, prices and availability of vegetables will probably not be affected because areas such as Yuma, Ariz., and the Imperial Valley are still at high production.

“I just talked to a vegetable grower today, and prices are in the tank as far as celery, mixed lettuce and so forth,” Laird said. “And that’s because there’s other areas that are putting out the product right now, and in more than abundant supply.”

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Rain Damage

The following are preliminary crop damage estimates from this season’s storms:

Strawberries: $18 million

Celery: $4.2 million

Lettuce: $2.5 million

Broccoli: $1.9 million

Greens: $1.2 million

Cilantro: $900,000

Citrus: $627,000

Cauliflower: $405,000

TOTAL: $31.2 MILLION

* The total includes $1.5 million in cleanup costs.

Source: Ventura County Agricultural

Department