News Blog
Wine Grape Values Fall to Lowest Since 1996
June 26, 2012
It's not all green in the Salad Bowl of America. Agriculture, Monterey County's leading industry, was down by nearly 4 percent last year, according to the annual crop report released Tuesday by Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner Eric Lauritzen.
The report calculated a total crop value of about $3.85 billion last year. Although that number is a decline from 2010, it's still representative of a growth trend in recent years.
“We expect some fluctuations in production from year to year, based on market, price, weather and other factors,” Lauritzen said in a statement.
Leaf lettuce took back its number one spot from strawberries, as the value of lettuce grew by 7 percent to a value of $777 million, and strawberries fell by 5 percent to $714 million.
The biggest value drop came for wine grapes, which fell by 18 percent last year; that on top of a 27-percent decline in 2010. Wine grapes fell to their lowest value, and fewest tons harvested, in more than a decade.
But Rhonda Motil, executive director of the Vintners and Growers Association, is optimistic about a turnaround in 2012. “The weather was perfect, early cluster counts are up and inventories are down, which indicate a much better year ahead,” she said in a statement.
The ag commissioner also released a study earlier this year on the economic contributions of agriculture to Monterey County beyond raw revenue data. Monterey Institute of International Studies Professors Jeff Langholz and Fernando DePaolis co-authored the report and found that the industry contributed $8.2 billion and more than 73,000 jobs to the county economy in 2010.
To view the 2011 crop report, visit http://ag.co.monterey.ca.us.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID