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Water cutbacks, an early heat wave and the lingering effects of freeze and fire are combining to make for the smallest avocado harvest in perhaps 20 years, growers said this week. What's more, they said, the conditions could hasten the decline of one of North County's proudest industries.
Local packers and grove managers say their crops are shaping up to be less than half the size of those in many recent years. Temperatures of more than 90 degrees in April, during the trees' critical blooming period, inflicted particularly harsh damage in inland areas such as Fallbrook, De Luz, Escondido and Ramona. The relatively small number of groves in Bonsall and other cooler areas closer to the coast fared somewhat better, growers said.
The California Avocado Commission, a private organization of growers, expects the state's 2008 crop to finish at about 215 million pounds, compared with about 350 million pounds in 2007 and a record 600 million pounds in 2006. The commission has no official forecast for San Diego County, where the state's industry is centered, but conversations with growers point toward a harvest of perhaps 60 million pounds, down from 134 million pounds last year and 242 million pounds in 2006.
"The fruit got nailed by the heat," said Bob Lucy, co-owner of Del Rey Avocado Co., a Fallbrook packing house. "Just fried. It looked like it was set to be a very good crop." Several growers who sell to Del Rey are in the process of converting or selling the land to developers, Lucy said. Most of those groves range from 10 to 20 acres. Many smaller groves are still useful as landscaping on residential estates, and the owners of larger groves tend to be career growers who are still willing to tough it out, Lucy said.
Source: tradingmarkets.com
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