Hollister
– With San Benito County apricot growers beginning their annual
harvest this week, this year’s crop promises to provide one of the
fullest in recent memory after a disappointing 2006.
Hollister – With San Benito County apricot growers beginning their annual harvest this week, this year’s crop promises to provide one of the fullest in recent memory after a disappointing 2006.
In 2006, the apricot crop value fell to less than $1 million for only the second time in at least 25 years. San Benito County apricots were valued at $1.6 million in 1947. A rainy spring and warm winter contributed to Mark Gibson of Gibson Farms yielding only one-third of his normal crop, he said.
Due to pressure from imports and other factors, local apricot production has steadily decreased for nearly three decades.
The strong apricot harvest should be a welcome change for county growers.
“Last year was a disaster,” Gibson said. “I think it was the shortest crop in my limited experience.”
This year, conditions were just right leading into the harvest, with cold winter months and dry spring weather during the apricot blossom. Growers are rushing to harvest the crop before hot July weather damages the fruit.
The harvest should be a rapid one, Gibson said.
“With this heat, we’re a little concerned about sunburn damage,” Gibson said, “especially with this triple-digit stuff.”
Bill Coates, a researcher with the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Benito County, said several days of more than 100-degree weather can damage the delicate stone fruit.
Gibson said his apricot crop, of which about 25 percent had been harvested through Thursday, should yield one of the largest in the past decade. Gibson Farms thinned 50 percent of its apricot trees several months ago to get the fruit’s size right for cutting and drying.
Some growers were unable to adequately thin the apricot trees, resulting in smaller sizes, Coates said. A small heat wave in June also contributed to size problems, he said.
Another problem with yielding an abundant crop for several farmers has been finding workers to pick the fruit, said San Benito County Farm Bureau President George Bonacich.
Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich said the labor pool has changed throughout the decades, making harvests more difficult.
“It’s not like the old days where they had families that moved from harvest to harvest,” Matulich said.
But many local growers, including Gibson, have contracted their labor in time for the harvest.
Mary Rossi, of B & R Farms on Fairview Road, said the farm has found enough labor to get the apricots off the trees before the heat takes effect, Rossi said.
“We’re blessed with the help we’ve been able to find,” Rossi said.
Every year apricot trees disappear from San Benito County.
Since 1980, the county has lost an average of 70 acres of apricots per year, according to the San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.
Turkish imports, which are one-fourth the cost of San Benito County apricots, have driven many growers out of business, Gibson said.
Coupled with increased irrigation and labor costs, the orchard business has been slowly fading in the county.
“There’s no money in it,” Gibson said. “That’s why you see the orchards going out.”
