Experiment May Lead to Fatter Fruit and Profits

The future of Ventura County’s Valencia orange industry may be sprouting in a corner of the Rancho Filoso citrus orchard.

For two years, University of California researchers have been thinning the fruit and pruning the trees on an acre of the Santa Paula ranch, using the riverbank parcel for an open-air experiment aimed at helping rescue the century-old industry from a decade of economic decline.

The research team moved in again a few weeks ago, picking the crop for the second time to determine whether the therapies had fattened the oranges enough to boost their market value.

The results aren’t in yet. Even if they succeed, questions remain about whether such methods can be cost-effectively applied on a larger scale.

But in an industry being squeezed by plunging prices and profits, growers are looking for any hint of good news in a last-ditch battle to save Valencias from vanishing altogether from the county’s agricultural scene.

“We’re not ready to give up yet,” said rancher Anita Tate, 82, whose family helped settle Ventura County’s citrus heartland and who volunteered her farm for the experimental grove.

“If we could find out what works best to make a larger Valencia orange, maybe it would help us all,” she said. “We were willing to allow them to try to do something for the greater good.”

It has been no good at all for Valencia orange growers for a number of years, and so far this season isn’t looking much better.

Although Valencias are still a strong component of the county’s $1-billion-a-year farm economy, growers have suffered major losses in recent years, prompting them to uproot thousands of trees in favor of crops better able to turn a profit in California’s competitive fruit and vegetable markets.

Once the county’s second-biggest cash crop, Valencia oranges barely crack the top 10 today. Values have collapsed to 1970 levels, including an 80% plunge from 1999 to 2000. And the amount of land dedicated to them has dropped by half--to 9,300 acres--during the past 30 years, prompting concerns that the industry may soon reach a threshold at which it no longer makes economic sense to farm oranges.

The industry has been wracked by rising production costs and increased competition from around the globe.

Growers in South America, Australia and Africa have ratcheted up orange production in recent years, doing so at a fraction of the cost for domestic growers.

Local growers also are hurt by the fact that many of the county’s orchards were planted decades ago, producing fruit that still tastes good but is not as large--and thus is not as marketable--as that produced by younger groves in other parts of the state.

With the industry heading deep into a nose dive a few years ago, UC farm advisors won a grant from the Hansen Trust to study ways to even the playing field. They are spending about $25,000 a year to develop ways to spur orange trees to deliver bigger fruit, hoping that a simple change in growing practices might help.

“The bottom line is, we are trying to find ways to get more money for growers,” said Nick Sakovich, UC’s citrus farm advisor in Ventura County and chairman of a countywide task force aimed at reviving the industry.

“We are talking about an industry’s livelihood, and we are going to try our darndest to keep it going,” he said. “It may get to the point where we can’t do it. But at this point we can’t just say, ‘Let’s fold up our tents and go to something else.’ ”

Last week at Hansen Trust headquarters, a stately Queen Anne Victorian at the historic Faulkner Farm near Santa Paula, no one was ready to call it quits.

Growers and agricultural economists gathered for the second meeting of the Valencia orange task force, brainstorming ideas for pulling the crop out of its slump.

“Too often the comment is that the industry is dead and we need to move on, but I think we can do better than that,” Santa Paula citrus rancher Dan Pinkerton told the group. “We still have substantial acreage committed to oranges; that’s what it grows best. And I think we have the resources here, along with a history of progressive agriculture, to be able to turn it around.”

Finding Ways to Boost Oranges’ Appeal

Much of the meeting centered on finding new and better ways to market Ventura County Valencias, given the county’s proximity to the large and diverse consumer base in neighboring Los Angeles County.

Michael Reid, program leader for agriculture production programs at UC Davis, told growers that consumers have shown they are willing to pay a premium for everything from hothouse tomatoes to baby carrots, both gourmet commodities that helped revive those industries.

And he told them to look to Starbucks, where people form long lines and shell out big bucks for a cup of coffee, to understand that the right kind of promotion can make all the difference.

“The people you are aiming at are not concerned about what it costs, they are looking for quality,” Reid said. “We have to start thinking Starbucks. The question is how can the Valencia growers of Ventura County carve out a Starbucks opportunity?”

With that, the ideas started to flow.

The growers talked about marketing fresh-squeezed Ventura County orange juice, calling on restaurants and retailers to support a “locally grown” campaign.

They talked about finding ways to sell fresh-picked oranges to specialty stores and other outlets, driving home the message that the fruit is just off the tree rather than warehoused to await consumer demand.

And they tossed around ideas for developing products of higher value, perhaps finding better uses for oranges by turning them into such products as oils, fragrances or candy.

“I would be reluctant to give up on Valencias completely, they can still be a good thing,” Ojai Valley tangerine grower Jim Churchill said. “There is so far a limited market, but the real question is: Can one be developed?”

The question does not only pertain to Valencia oranges.

Across the state and nation, farmers are struggling with similar issues as free-trade mandates and the rising costs of domestic production make it tougher to stay competitive. Farm experts say efforts underway to save the Valencia orange industry may also provide useful information for growers of other crops.

At least that is what Nick Sakovich thinks as he tends the experimental grove at Rancho Filoso.

He is overseeing the experiment, trying nine methods--15 times each--to increase the size and weight of the oranges on 135 trees.

Crews have hand-thinned the fruit, removing oranges just as they are developing so those left behind can grow bigger. They also have trimmed back branches, both by hand and mechanically, to allow light to seep through and spur further growth.

Each tree was picked individually a few weeks ago, and the oranges were sized and weighed. Citrus researchers at UC Riverside are crunching the numbers, comparing this summer’s crop to last year’s.

The study is scheduled to extend for four years, Sakovich said, and should provide ranchers with a scientific assessment of the best ways to grow bigger oranges.

May Be End of an Era for One Grower

But the information may come too late for growers such as Anita Tate, who appears headed for her second bad year in a row.

She is considering switching a large part of her 50-acre Valencia orange crop to something that is going to bring in more money.

“We grow really wonderful Valencias, but nobody wants them,” said Tate, whose grandfather grew the oranges when the crop was prized by consumers worldwide.

“I’d still like to see if we can get this market up a little bit so we can do a little better,” she said. “We used to have this market to ourselves, but we don’t have that anymore. And we probably never will have it again.”