Our produce is well traveled
Produce grown in San Benito County often has a long journey
before it reaches its destination.
That’s hardly unusual. According to a study by the Woldwatch
Institute, much of what may be on your dinner table traveled 1,500
to 2,500 miles to get there. The diversity of local crops means
that much of it is consumed locally, but that’s not always the
case.
Take cherries
– if you can. During 2005 2,000 tons of cherries were grown in
San Benito County and the majority of those cherries were consumed
not in California, or even in the United States, but in Japan.
Our produce is well traveled
Produce grown in San Benito County often has a long journey before it reaches its final destination.
That’s hardly unusual. According to a study by the Woldwatch Institute, much of what may be on your dinner table traveled 1,500 to 2,500 miles to get there. The diversity of local crops means that much of it is consumed locally, but that’s not always the case.
Take cherries – if you can. During 2005 2,000 tons of cherries were grown in San Benito County and the majority of those cherries were consumed not in California, or even in the United States, but in Japan.
Cherries travel for a very simple reason: they fetch top dollar in Asian Markets, where they are sometimes sold individually for as much as $1.
“In the past San Benito County has exported onions to Australia and Apricots to Japan. During a normal year 80 percent of the cherries produced here go mostly to the Asian markets,” Pinnacle Trading Company CEO Robert Brown said.
It is not clear exactly how much of San Benito County’s crops get exported overseas each year, according to Ron Ross, with the San Benito County Agriculture Department.
“Because of the unique climate here the area goes into production after the Central Valley and before the Northwest, so the window for apricots and cherries is good,” Ross said.
A large portion of the onions and peppers grown in San Benito County have previously been exported to Mexico, China and Taiwan.
Also interesting is that lately nations in the European Union, especially Germany, have been importing large amounts of walnuts from San Benito County.
“Because of the health benefits the export of walnuts has increased over the last several years,” Ross said.
Pinnacle Trading Company is a fruit brokerage that buys and sells fruit in San Benito County. CEO Robert Brown said his company is not currently sending any crops overseas, but later into the spring and the summer they’ll start exporting some of the commodities to Asia and Europe, depending on the market.
Ross assembled a list in 2005 detailing some of the destinations local produce landed.
Ross’ list covers the continents pretty well: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Honduras, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached a
po*******@pi**********.com
.
