“Fresno is a great place to be from, if you’re a grape,” wits sometimes quip.
Such was apparently the case in 2022. The Fresno County agricultural commissioner’s report says grapes were the county’s number one crop.
When I delved into the subject, I was under the impression that Fresno was the nation’s top agricultural county in dollar value, but I was wrong, at any rate in regard to last year.
Fresno County was number two, with $8.096 billion in dollar value.
It was outstripped by neighboring Tulare County, at $8.6 billion.
Along with another neighbor, Kern County, these three counties, all in California’s southern San Joaquin Valley, tend to swap places for top producing county in the nation.
Fresno County’s biggest crop (figures in this article are about dollar value) was grapes, at $1.241 billion. Almonds are frequently the biggest crop, but they fell to second place, at $1.141 billion. Why? Average price per ton: $3,148. Average price in 2021? $3,736. That’s quite a hit.
As for citrus, California’s traditional star—navels—saw a drop in crop value, which (for the fresh crop) fell from $198.4 million in 2021 to $171.5 million in 2022. Here prices weren’t the culprit: they actually went up—from $589 a ton in 2021 to $604 a ton in 2022. Rather it was a precipitate drop in acreage—from 2021’s 28,020 harvested acres to a figure of 24,500, reflecting a long downward trend for navels.
Mandarins, more of an up-and-coming citrus, gained in both value and gross: they fetched $1,051 a ton in 2022 compared to $691 in 2021. Value correspondingly rose to $240.7 million in 2022 from $221.8 million the previous year. Acreage was flat: 24,120 in 2021, 24,400 in 2022.
In Fresno County, not all grapes are alike. They are grown for three quite different uses: table consumption, raisins, and wine. Fresh table varieties amounted to about $651.2 million—slightly more than half of the $1.235 billion total. Another $7.58 million of raisin varieties were sold as fresh. Prices for table grapes were flat: $2,074 a ton in 2022 as opposed to 2021’s $2.071 million.
Fresh peaches also did well: fresh freestones earned $335.1 million in 2022, up from $208.4 million in 2021, despite a small drop in acreage. Again, price was the determining factor: $1,915 a ton as opposed to $1,380 in 2021.
Nectarines also saw a boost: a rise in dollar value from $150.4 million in 2021 to $214.8 million in 2022. Acreage rose only slightly (11,018 harvested acres, up from 10,865 the previous year). Here too price was the big factor: $2,551 a ton compared to 2021’s $1,738.
Ian LeMay, president of the California Fresh Fruit Association, puts the figures in perspective: “The reality is our members may have been paid a few more dollars for their products, but as we know their input costs went up as well. It is getting more expensive to grow fresh produce in California. With that, the cost of our goods will need to exceed those costs for us to sustain our business.”
But as I said at the outset, Tulare County is number one this year. County agricultural commissioner Tom Tucker observed in his report, “The total value of all Field Crop production in 2022 was $745,489,000, an increase of 30% from the previous year. This increase is mostly attributed to better prices for field crops across the board.”
But the real ag powerhouse in Tulare County is milk, with a gross value of $2.671 billion: 31 percent of the total production value of $8.612 billion.
Explanation? Forty million Californians drink a lot of milk.
