Grape Pest Tax Extended

California grape growers are aiming to create a no-fly zone for the glassy-winged sharpshooter, overwhelmingly agreeing to extend a tax dedicated to fighting the pest that is threatening to severely damage the industry.

“We feel pretty good about it,” said Nick Frey, executive director of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Assn. “I think people looked at it as an investment.”

The mail-in vote extends the assessments, based on crop value, through March 2011, the California Department of Food and Agriculture announced this week. The assessment had been set to expire in 2006.

Nearly 90% of the more than 4,000 growers voted to approve the tax, which will be used to fund research into preventing the pest from spreading Pierce’s disease, which kills crops by interfering with the plant’s ability to absorb water and nutrients.

Pierce’s disease has been in the state for decades, caused by bacteria that thrive along waterways. But in the past, damage was limited because the bacteria were carried by insects that couldn’t fly very far.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter, which arrived in California about 15 years ago, can fly farther than other pests and has the potential to take the disease deep into vineyards.

In the late 1990s, Pierce’s disease caused an estimated $40 million in losses in the grape-growing region of Temecula in Riverside County.

The assessment, which varies annually and has a maximum of $3 per $1,000 worth of grapes sold, has raised nearly $18 million for research over the last four years and has leveraged millions more in matching grants. This year, the assessment is $2 per $1,000 crop value.

The funding is expected to raise about $4 million a year.