Yuba County crop values spike

Walnuts, prune harvest drive 8 percent jump over 2016

Yuba County crop values were up 8 percent in 2017 compared to the year prior due in large part to the increased value of walnuts and a recovering prune harvest, according to the most recent crop report released Tuesday.

Agricultural Commissioner Stephen Scheer said the agricultural industry in the county is strong and seems to be on an upward economic trend.

“I think that what stood out in the report was that it was generally a good year for most crops, and we didn’t have any kind of disaster in any of the commodities as we have had in the several previous years,” Scheer said.

The gross value of Yuba County’s agricultural production for 2017 was $231,777,000 – an improvement from value estimates in 2016 of nearly $215 million.

“The increase in value is primarily due to higher prices for walnuts and increased yield in prunes, which experienced significant crop failure in 2016. Milk, timber and almonds also had notable increases in value,” Scheer said in the report.

The county’s top crop continues to be walnuts, which generated more than $74 million last year in gross value. The next leading commodities were rice ($37 million), prunes ($33.6 million) and peaches ($22.9 million).

Walnuts improved in value in the county by $8.1 million due to a price increase – an additional $700 per ton in 2017 compared to 2016. Prunes also improved in total value from the year prior by $8.6 million – prices were lower in 2017, but there was a higher yield than in 2016 when inclement weather destroyed a large portion of the crop.