California’s 2003 Crop Seems Like Strawberry Fields Forever

California strawberry growers are farming a record number of acres this season, as clear skies and mild temperatures provide a lightning-quick start to this year’s harvest and plentiful crops in both Orange and Ventura counties.

More than 28,230 acres of strawberries have been planted statewide, the most ever for the industry, which generates $700 million a year in California.

In Orange County, where high property values put cropland under constant threat of development, strawberry acreage increased 10% since last year, going from 2,219 acres in 2002 to 2,456 in 2003, according to the California Strawberry Commission. The commission’s Orange County figures include small areas of Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.

The areas that have opened up for Orange County growers included new leases at the former Tustin Marine base and adjacent hillsides, plus some plots near Los Alamitos.

Grower Tomio Ito, 78, of Irvine doubts the increase can be sustained and says he expects some farmland acreage to disappear in coming years.

Ito, 78, who farms about 300 acres in Irvine, also said that although the mild weather has increased yields, Santa Ana winds have created havoc with farming operations and caused a significant amount of crop damage.

Paul Murai, who farms 100 acres in strawberries at the former El Toro Marine base, said his acreage has remained steady. He expects the crop to be a good one. Harvesting began in mid-December and “the plants look pretty good.”

The expected rainy El Nino weather, which could have flooded fields, has not materialized, and there has been no frost. A possible bumper crop could result in lower prices for strawberries, Murai said.

Strawberries are Orange County’s biggest crop behind the nurseries and cut flowers category. Last year, they brought in $52.6 million.

In Ventura County, strawberry growers are farming a record number of acres. Growers have nearly 8,800 acres in strawberry production this year, a 2.5% increase over last year and an 84% increase from 10 years ago, when just 4,760 acres were planted.

Those increases have made Ventura County the state’s fastest-growing strawberry-producing region over the last decade. It’s the state’s second-largest strawberry-growing region, trailing only the Watsonville-Salinas area, which has 11,687 acres.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Oxnard-area grower Humberto Candelario, who started farming 35 acres in 1990 and now works 300. “We’ve had a lot of growers from other areas come to this area, and it seem like everyone keeps expanding a little bit year after year.”

According to a farmland survey, Ventura County’s strawberry acreage in 2001 was the sixth most valuable agricultural land in California.

The additional acres in Oxnard come mostly from growers who have expanded their fields and added a second growing season, said Dominique Hansen, spokeswoman for the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission.

Normally, strawberries are planted in the fall and harvested between late December and mid-July. But more and more growers are planting strawberries for harvest in the fall. “Strawberries are harvested just about year-around now in California,” Hansen said.