The gross value of Yolo County’s agricultural production for 2023 was nearly 25% more than a year earlier, according to the annual crop report.
Scheduled to be presented to Yolo County supervisors on Tuesday, the report shows there was $901.86 million in commodities sold including processing tomatoes, almonds, olives, wine grapes and other crops last year.
In 2022, some $696 million was generated, states the report that will be presented by Ag Commissioner Humberto Izquierdo.
The county’s top crop, as it was in 2022, is processing tomatoes, whose value was put at $236.717 million, compared to $183.6 million in 2022.
Almonds came in second with a value of $120.922 vs. $60.576 in 2022 while wine grapes were a distant third generating $101.383 million in 2023 against $65.042 a year earlier.
Although the crop report doesn’t offer many reasons for the decline, both the almond and wine industries nationally have been falling in recent years after almond imports from Asia started falling and people started drinking less wine.
Other more local effects were created by the weather conditions such as the continuing drought and a winter freeze.
Of the increase, Izquierdo states the money generated in 2023 “was primarily due to an increase in rice production, strong tomato prices, as well as improved wine grape and almond yield. “
“In 2022, almonds and grapes were hit hard by the freeze,” he states, which lowered the amount of production. “Yields rebounded in 2023 and growers harvested typical tonnage. Walnuts continue to see a downward trend and prices remained low in 2023.”
He also states that water supply was reliable in 2023, compared to previous years, and rice acreage significantly increased, while rangeland vegetation growth and an increase in hay production resulted in a slight decrease in hay prices.
That indicates that while the $901.86 million figure looks good compared to the $696 million earned in 2022, it’s just $90.74 million more than in 2021 for the reasons stated by Izquierdo.
Also shown is revenue from fruit and nut crops, which includes almonds olives, pistachios, plums, walnuts and more. Until recently, olives (used to manufacture olive oil) were doing well.
But while still generating healthy sales, the 2023 report states that olive acres came in at 6,652 compared to 6,097 in 2022 with tonnage also up from 24,000 tons vs. 22,000. The price per ton of olives was also strong at $762 in 2023 compared to $669 in 2022.
So, despite those good figures, the numbers still work out to $18.288 million in 2023 against $14.718 million in 2022, far less than the $236.7 million for processing tomatoes.
The report reveals that Yolo County ships its products to 92 countries with the top commodities being rice, almonds, walnuts, hay and seed.
Those countries include, China, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands.
Those shipments can be seen most dramatically in rice production, which showed an increase to $54.27 million in 2023 from $23.224 million as the reputation of rice across the Sacramento region has expanded.
The largest drop in commodity sales was for hay and alfalfa, which reaped $25.7 million in 2023 against $39.324 million a year earlier.
Other crops in the Top 10 commodities category included all organic produce (which generated $63.89 million from 98 farms, 91 of which are certified)), pistachios ($29.124 million), nursery products ($26.752 million), sunflower seeds ($24.292 million) and apiary products like honey ($23.738 million).
In his report, Izquierdo states the money shown represents the gross value of production and does not reflect net farm income.
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