GILROY
– In Santa Clara County agriculture, cherries were down and
chili peppers and Asian vegetables were up in 2002 – with the
industry as a whole losing value over 2001, according to recently
released county figures.
GILROY – In Santa Clara County agriculture, cherries were down and chili peppers and Asian vegetables were up in 2002 – with the industry as a whole losing value over 2001, according to recently released county figures.
“The total gross value of Santa Clara County’s agricultural production for 2002 is $255,674,400, a decrease of 11 percent from the 2001 value of $288,163,900,” Greg Van Wassenhove, county agriculture commissioner, wrote in the annual county crop report.
For specific crops, nursery crops continued to be the top dollar earner in Santa Clara County. Nursery crops, which include any crop grown in a greenhouse, except cut flowers, had a gross value of $113,641,500 in 2002, a $25 million decrease compared to 2001.
Mushrooms kept their number-two ranking in the county, with a gross value of just more than $46 million, an increase of more than $4 million over 2001.
The overall decline in agriculture products reflects the general economic malaise in California and the United States, according to Jenny Midtgaard Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau.
“Overall, it was a bad year economically,” Derry said. “Any sort of economic change affects farming like it does any other business.”
Cherry growers faced the difficult economy, bad weather and a boom year in 2001, all of which combined to sharply drop the gross value of the crop from $10.4 million to $3.2 million.
“Cherries are one of those crops that if there’s not enough cold weather to produce cherries, the tonnage drops,” Van Wassenhove said. “If you look at what happened the amount of trees went up but production was down.”
Things are looking bleak for this year’s crop, said Mitch Mariani of Morgan Hill’s Mariani Orchards.
“This year our crop is really off compared to last year,” Mariani said, but added, “The quality of our fruit is high.”
Kip Brundage, president of the farm bureau, and owner of G & K Farms in Gilroy, wasn’t shocked by the results.
“It doesn’t surprise us at all,” Brundage said of the annual crop report. “Because of the imports, the value of our crops is down. The ag industry is suffering because of that.”
Brundage mentioned competition from Mexico for fresh produce, Turkey for processed tomatoes, Canada for cereal grains and China for garlic.
Kevin O’Day, deputy agriculture commissioner for Santa Clara County, agreed that foreign competition puts a lot of pressure on local farmers. O’Day pointed out that in 1990, cut flowers grown in Santa Clara County had a gross value of $19.9 million dollars. By 2002, that figure had dropped to $9.1 million.
“The main reason for the drop in cut flowers is foreign competition,” O’Day said. “Cut flowers are labor intensive and energy intensive. With improvements in transportation and handling for cut flowers, they can be shipped longer distances.”
Growers now face competitors from Colombia and Ecuador, for example, who have much lower labor and energy costs than United States growers pay, he said.
Many growers of cut flowers are now growing Asian vegetables instead, O’Day said.
“Most of the growers (of Asian vegetables in Santa Clara County) are in South County,” O’Day said.
Asian vegetables include items such as ong choy, bok choy, Chinese spinach, Chinese broccoli, Chinese cabbage and many plants in the mustard family.
Tim Chiala, manager of fresh produce for George Chiala Farms in Morgan Hill said he’s started growing bok choy and a Japanese vegetable, edamame, as an experiment. Edamame is a Japanese soybean used frequently in appetizers, Chiala said. He’s devoted three to five acres to each of these crops.
“I think with the market the way it is, everyone’s looking for something new to grow,” Chiala said. “There’s a large Asian influence in the Bay Area.”
Chiala said so far, he’s been shipping his Asian vegetables to buyers in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas.
“We’re hoping it catches on,” he said.
Another bright spot for South County farmers is the chili pepper market.
“South County is becoming known as a hot spot for chili pepper development and production because of the climate,” Derry said.
“It’s warm at the right time and farmers have been successful in finding markets for them.”
Those markets aren’t just in the Bay Area or California, Derry said.
“We have trucks coming into South County all the time going all the way across the country with our chili peppers,” she said, mentioning markets as far away as Minneapolis and Chicago.
Joe Aiello, owner of Uesegi Farms, which farms land “from Coyote to Gilroy” said the chili pepper market is a trend that’s been developing for some time. Aiello devotes 300 acres in South County to chili peppers.
“I think it’s something that’s been building for a long time,” Aiello said. “Over the years we’ve built up a reputation for being a real reliable producer.”
Chiala credits changing American diets for driving the increased demand for chili peppers.
“I think it’s directly related to people in the United States eating more salsa,” Chiala said, noting that Hispanics make up an ever-increasing proportion of the United States population, helping to speed the changes in American diets.
Overall, the report indicates that while agriculture is a thriving industry in South County, it shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“I think (agriculture) is still a viable industry economically in the county,” Van Wassenhove said. “It’s a testimony to growers to be able to react to demands and urbanization and increasing energy costs and still produce a viable product.”
Van Wassenhove said county leaders keep a close eye on the health of the agriculture industry.
“The county has an existing policy to promote and protect agricultural land,” he said. “The Board (of Supervisors) continues to make decisions that are cognizant of that.”
