US (CA): Salinas Valley crop hits highest ever value
“This is the third time the crop report has exceeded $4 billion, but this is the highest year ever,” said Eric Lauritzen, the ag commissioner.
Leaf lettuce led the way for the second year in a row, with a total value of more than $794 million. Head, or iceberg lettuce, the valley’s one-time “green gold,” slipped to third place with a total value of more than $476 million. Strawberries held the No. 2 position, with a value of nearly $785 million.
Mark Borman, president of Taylor Farms California and chairman of the Grower-Shipper Association, commented that growers continue to show nimbleness in responding to consumer trends.
“We’re seeing a demand for darker leafy greens,” he said. “This industry has flexibility.”
Lauritzen noted that spinach value rose to $131 million in 2012, but still has not fully recovered from the E. coli outbreak of 2006, when bagged spinach salad sickened more than 200 people and killed three across 26 states and Canada. Back in 2006, Salinas Valley spinach had a value of around $180 million, he said.
“California grows 75 percent of the nation’s spinach, and half of that is grown in Monterey County,” Lauritzen said.
The $4.1 billion in produce’s gross value should be multiplied by 2.2 to 2.5 to get its full effect on the Monterey County economy, said Jim Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association.
“The contribution of agriculture to this county is about $8.5 billion,” Bogart said. “One out of five jobs here is ag-related.”
He noted the industry’s strong interest in getting an immigration reform bill passed that allows undocumented immigrants already here a path to legalization and establishes a guest-worker program for field laborers.
Norm Groot, head of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, said, “There are no mechanical alternatives to labor in many cases” when it comes to harvesting such crops as strawberries.
Source: the californian.com
