Santa Cruz County Fair recognizes farmers after rough start to the year
WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION) - The Santa Cruz County Fair is back in town. If you go, make sure to check out the harvest section of the fair.
The winters storms damaging crops. What has the recovery process been like leading up to this year’s fair. The local agriculture industry looking to make an impact at the fair.
This year agriculture is at the forefront of the fair. No one knows that better then Kayce Pavlovich.
"The fair is so important to our community because ag is everything in this community. That's what that's what we are known for around this area," said Kayce Pavlovich, department head for the Agriculture Department.
Dennis Webb is the president of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, he says.
"I think it's just really important to realize how interconnected our community and agricultural industry is," said Dennis Webb, President of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau.
The Santa Cruz county fair kicked of on Wednesday.
In the middle of the rides, food, and stands, there’s a harvest section dedicated to local agriculture.
"We like to, like, enter like the vegetables and like the baked goods and stuff because our family is a big, like, farm kind of family," said Terren Hayford who lives in Watsonville.
Over 60 million in estimated crop losses were reported in Santa Cruz County because of the storms earlier this year.
Strawberries taking the biggest his as over 38 million dollars worth of the fruit was lost.
"You have people that are here that are like berries that have already planted. we know some people that lost at least 50% of their crop. So it was very devastating to the community as a whole," said Pavlovich.
"There's damage economically, but the most heartbreaking part is just, you know, the effect that there's been on families and residents of our town," said Webb.
Other local businesses from Watsonville also felt the effects of the storm, but say the fair is giving them a boost in business.
"Roads were closed. We were we wanted to keep having events so that a lot of our local vendors from watsonville could continue to make that income," said Lizette Salgado, co-business owner of Dulces al Chamoy.
Officials with the Santa Cruz County Fair say they are expected over 16-thousand people a day.
