Monterey County’s 2023 crop value at $4.35 billion, down 6.14% from previous year

SALINAS – Reflecting a production gross value of $4.35 billion, the 2023 County of Monterey Crop and Livestock Report was released Tuesday, with strawberries still the top-valued commodity in the county.

The report states 2023’s value of $4,353,338,000 is a 6.14% decrease from 2022’s value of $4,638,336,000. Presented by Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Juan Hidalgo, “overall it’s a good crop report” Hidalgo said at a press briefing prior to a formal presentation to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

“The theme of the report is ‘Together We Rise’ which reminds us of the resiliency of our communities and the drive of our growers to face some of the severe weather challenges that we have seen in our county and in our state in the last decade, and the innovation in technology that is going to continue to be created to manage and be ready for the challenges of the future,” said Hidalgo.

The Ag Commissioner said he thinks the change and decreasing value reflects some of the challenges that Monterey County’s agricultural industry faced in 2023 with  excessive rain.

Two major storms in January and March of 2023 resulted in flooding of low-lying areas in Monterey County which had an impact on planting schedules and resulted in commodity losses in some areas, according to the report. Cooler than usual weather in the spring and early summer also led to a slow start for some commodities.

But the impact of the weather on commodities was tempered to some extent by market demand for high-value crops produced here.

The top four valued commodities for 2023 maintained their rankings from the previous year and include strawberries leading the list with a gross production value of $903,791,000, a 5.7% decrease from 2022; leaf lettuce, including Romaine and other leaf lettuce varieties in the number-two position valued at $782,134,000, a decrease of 7.2%; head lettuce at number three with a value of $493,464,000, down 9.8%; broccoli coming in fourth with a value of $468,871,000, a decrease of 9.7%; and wine grapes jumping to the fifth position from its number-seven rank last year with a value of $194,642,000, an increase of 12%.

The figures are gross production values and do not include costs that include labor, field preparation, planting, irrigating, harvesting, distribution, pest management, cooling, marketing, equipment, assessments, regulatory costs of loss experienced by individual operations, and other production activities.

The weather in 2023 actually benefited wine grapes with the rain increasing yields through an extended season and increasing gross production value.

Jason Smith, president and CEO of Valley Farms Management, is a second-generation wine grape grower in Monterey County. He said what is unique about growing wine grapes is that it is a permanent crop harvesting once a year, as opposed to row crops which grow and are harvested in cycles.

“My positive take, specifically on Monterey County and the wine grape industry, is that we have land, water and people … much better than many other places in the state … and quality,” said Smith. “We can grow quality wine grapes. Chardonnay, pinot noir are our main varieties because it’s a cool climate, but our cycles take longer to get through.”

In 2023, wine grapes were grown on 40,200 acres in Monterey County yielding 136,000 tons with a crop value of $194.6 million. In 2022, it was 41,480 bearing acres producing 124,424 tons, with a production gross value of $173.7 million.

Mary Zischke, task force administrator with the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, said that 2023 was a study in contrast compared to what was seen in 2022 which was marked by a dry, warm winter and seemed to encourage pest problems.

“The fall of 2022 was marked by severe crop losses in our major acreage crop, which is lettuce, caused by the plant virus INSV, something that we were terrified about seeing a repeat of in 2023,” said Zischke.

But the cold, wet winter weather in 2023 had an impact on the disease because crops were not being planted in many cases.

“We are demonstrating to the world that we’re a pretty resilient area as far as corp production is concerned,” said Zischke. “We’ve been challenged with droughts, we’ve been challenged with severe pest management issues, and yet we still put out over a billion dollar crop every year when it comes to lettuce.”

Lettuce crop acreage in 2023 was 100,700 with a production gross value of $1.275 billion, compared to 2022 when 103,558 acres of lettuce crops had a value of $1.389 billion.

Other categories of commodities also had a decline in their valuations.

The vegetable crops category saw a decrease in value of 7.9% to $2.88 billion and the fruit and nuts category had a decrease of 3.5% to $1.19 billion.

“Decreases in crop production values across the board reflect the inability to produce during extreme precipitation events,” said Norm Groot, Monterey County Farm Bureau executive director.

Groot said the weather events in 2023 not only dissolved levy systems and washed away topsoil, but presented a recovery that was not easy and placed a financial drain on resources that should have been used for crop production.

“Local growers received little in state and federal assistance to offset these financial losses,” said Groot. “All this contributes to a lower gross production value for our county, but also significant income losses for our farmers. When crops are delayed, harvest is delayed, and that means a loss of revenue that cannot be recovered.”

But farmers and ranchers can rise above the challenges and continue to grow the food supply by overcoming these obstacles and adapting to change, he said.

Hidalgo said this year’s crop report theme reminds the people of Monterey County of the viability of agriculture here in facing various natural disaster events in the last decade, which has been one of the most challenging. He credits the dedication of growers and the more than 62,000 agricultural workers for the continued production of commodities in Monterey County, making it a leader in the state and the nation.