Grapes hit top spot in S.J.
Agricultural Crop Report shows nearly 15 percent decrease in ag products from year before
STOCKTON — Good news for Lodi’s grapegrowers: Grape value surged in 2016, landing the local fruit in the top spot for the county’s agricultural production. The San Joaquin County Agricultural Commissioner formally presented the 2016 Annual Agricultural Crop Report to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The numbers will be used by the United States Department of Agriculture as part of its annual compilation of detailed agricultural data for every county in America.
“California’s historic drought certainly hindered crop production in San Joaquin County as well as many other regions in California. Even so, our county’s agriculture is still a global leader providing a significant number of jobs and billions of dollars to the economy,” said Chuck Winn, chairman of the board and Lodi’s supervisor.
Agricultural Commissioner Tim Pelican announced that the gross value of agricultural production for 2016 was over $2.3 billion, signaling a decline of nearly 15 percent from 2015 value. Decreases were focused on several fruit, nut and field crops, along with livestock and poultry.
Grape values, however, increased 21 percent over 2015. Beekeeping products grew 19 percent.
The surge in grape prices led to a production value of more than $425 million in 2016, and grapes replaced almonds as the county’s top crop.
The bee industry accounted for $23 million of the 2016 crop report, Pelican noted. That’s just in pollination services, he said.
Overall, bees play a role in more than a quarter of the county’s agricultural production, an industry totaling about $568 million, he said.
Still, not all the news was good.
“Parched, dry conditions throughout the state as well as volatile world market prices resulted in substantial losses to fruit, nut, vegetable and field crops in 2016.
In addition, livestock and poultry were especially hard hit by the decline of egg prices,” Pelican said.
Other takeaways from the 2016 crop year:
• Milk, the county’s No. 2 commodity, saw a loss of 2.68 percent in production value in 2016. Its total value was $362.2 million.
• Almonds dropped to No. 3 and were valued at $348.8 million, sustaining a loss of 19.53 percent in production value when compared to 2015.
• Walnuts experienced a production value of $273.9 million, marking a loss of 14.31 percent due to lower sale prices.
• Nursery products increased by 2.45 percent to $107.4 million.
A special section was devoted to the bee industry highlighting need for pollinator protection and their important role in production of food crops.
“In 2016, there were 220,000 hives spread over 103,000 acres (serving) at least nine commodities — like melons, pumpkins, apples and cherries — that San Joaquin County leads the state in production,” Pelican said. “Without the busy pollinators, Californians — and for that matter, people around the world — would be without many of the foods we depend on.”
A lot of people don’t know that San Joaquin County crops are exported to more than 90 countries around the world, Winn said.
“The way these crops perform in the market impacts our local, state and national economy on a massive scale,” he said. “We are confident that San Joaquin farmers have the expertise, resiliency and experience to guide us through this decline and lead us to the next bumper crop season.”