Monterey County 2023 Crop and Livestock Report
SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV): The Monterey County crop report for 2023 is out and the Monterey AG commissioner said because of storms last year we saw a decrease in crop production value across the board.
Compared to 2022, vegetable crops in 2023 decreased in value by 7.9%. Fruits and nuts dropped by 3.5% and head lettuce saw its value drop by 9.8% overall.
According to this report from the Monterey County AG commissioner, there was a total gross production value of $4.3 billion, a reduction of 6.1% compared to last year.
"I think that the decrease that we saw compared to 2022, which was $4.6 billion crop report has to do with some of the climate that we experienced in 2023, it was a really wet winter." said Juan Hidalgo, Agriculture Commissioner for the County of Monterey.
Juan Hidalgo, Agriculture Commissioner for the County of Monterey said the January and March flooding's in 2023 really affected crops like head lettuce.
"Lettuces in general were down anywhere from 6 to 8%, that's one of our major crops in the county." said Agriculture Commissioner for the County of Monterey, Hidalgo.
Strawberry remains the number one crop for this years crop report, but Agriculture Commissioner Hidalgo said they were down this year compared to last year because of the weather, from almost more than $958 million last year to $903-million to this year.
This years 2023 crop report showed a positive turn for grape production that went up 12% compared to last year, and the cannabis value.
"So there was an increase of $80 million compared to the previous year for the cannabis industry," said Agriculture Commissioner, for the County of Monterey, Hidalgo. "I mean, the prices are still low when it comes to flower production, but we're seeing that, maybe that the industry was doing a few more harvests in cycles last year as compared to the previous year."
Monterey county AG leaders said inflation was also one of the challenges for this years 2023 crop report, they said inflation plays a role in production commodities in the county with increased labor costs.
