Strawberry Acreage Up in Oxnard Plain

A longer growing season and extended period of mild weather have helped strawberry growers in the Oxnard Plain plant more acres of berries this year while total acres cultivated statewide have dropped, a trade group said Monday.

Local strawberry acreage has jumped 49% since 1997, when 5,218 acres were planted. This year, growers planted 7,777 acres, according to the California Strawberry Commission.

“It’s really good for the local economy, and it means there will be more strawberries out there for the public to buy,” said Dominique Hansen, a commission spokeswoman.

According to the commission’s annual acreage survey, Oxnard, the state’s second-largest producer of strawberries, increased its acreage about 2.5% over last year, when 7,591 acres were planted.

The Watsonville/Salinas district south of San Jose, the state’s leader in strawberry production, dropped 686 acres this year to 10,759. Santa Maria, north of Santa Barbara and third in production, decreased 401 acres to 3,817, and the smallest of the state’s four main producing areas, the Orange County/San Diego area, remained virtually unchanged, according to the commission’s report.

A series of storms that hammered the Central Coast caused the drop in Santa Maria’s acreage, Hansen said, while continued urban sprawl in the Orange County/San Diego area kept that area from expanding. “The land is hard to come by, so you don’t expect the acreage to go up much there,” she said.

“It’s been more profitable in the last couple of years [to grow strawberries] because lemons have not done real well,” said Dave Buettner, Ventura County’s deputy agricultural commissioner. “Strawberries are certainly a valuable crop on a per-acre basis.”

The acreage increase in the Oxnard Plain was the second round of good news for the county’s berry growers during the last year.

According to the 1999 Ventura County Agricultural Crop Report released in July, the most recent report available, strawberries overtook lemons’ half-century dominance of local crops that year. Growers raked in more than $220 million in 1999, almost $45 million more than in 1998.

If good conditions exist for the berries, Buettner said, profits from local strawberry sales could jump as high as the roughly 2.5% increase in acres planted.

The extra acres in the Oxnard Plain come mostly from local growers who have expanded their fields and added a second growing season, Hansen said. Oxnard was the state’s only growing area where this occurred.

Normally, most strawberry growers plant in late October or early November and pick between February and May, Hansen said. About two years ago, Oxnard growers started planting in early summer and picking in October and November.

“Now that Oxnard is producing berries later in the season, it’s kind of making the California strawberry season almost year-round,” Hansen said, adding that the mild winter has also been conducive to local production.

Overall, California strawberry acreage decreased 4.5% this year, the report says. A total of 25,142 acres were planted for harvest in the state, down 1,198 acres from last year.

“This decrease puts us back to average acreage levels,” said Dave Riggs, the commission’s president. “With the exception of 2000, California strawberry acreage has fluctuated between 22,000 and 25,500 acres over the last six seasons.”