LAKEPORT >> The value of Lake County crops hit a record mark in 2016, the most recent year for which data is available. The figure was noted in the Lake County Agriculture Department 2016 Crop Report, released this week.
Lake County Agricultural Commissioner Steven Hajik said the gross value of 2016 agricultural production was $113.8 million, which is a new high mark for the county.
“It is an increase of 12 percent from 2015 that was led the way by winegrapes. That was the number one commodity at $78.6 million,” Hajik said.
The price per ton of Lake County winegrapes grew by 3 percent, as well — this in spite of the fact that acreage devoted to winegrapes remained about the same, with only a 60-acre increase from the previous year.
The second largest commodity was pears, with a gross value of $20.8 million. But winegrapes and fruit are going in opposite directions. The figure for pears fell by 21 percent from the 2015 production year, Hajik said.
“This is because production was down by 20 percent. The acreage stayed the same and the price per tons stayed about the same,” Hajik said.
A 20 percent decrease from last year’s production is about 8,114 tons of the product. The price per ton did increase.
“The third commodity for the first time ever in the history of Lake County was timber at $5.1 million,” Hajik said. “There was a lot of salvage logging that was done due to the fires.”
This was a large increase from $28,447 recorded the year before. Because of record fire seasons, the timber industry continues to struggle due to the price reduction of the salvaged logging. This produces lower priced timber that flood the market preventing the normal timber prices to occur..
The fourth commodity is walnuts. The gross value of them in 2016 was $3.6 million. This is a decrease of 32 percent from 2015 with a slight production decrease. The price per ton decreased almost the same amount, at 31 percent.
“The trend seems to be walnut acres being removed and grapes being planted,” Hajik said.
The county still claims the most organic walnuts grown in the state of California he added.
For the overall production of crops, there was an increase in field crops by 14 percent and an increase in other fruit crops by 3 percent. There were decreases as well in nursery production by 37 percent, livestock production by 18 percent, vegetables by 22 percent and livestock by six percent.
The county releases the Crop Report as part of the California Agriculture Code that shows data and gross value on each crop.
