Rain storm damages Fresno County raisin crop. Farmers still assessing the extent
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rainstorm soaked raisin-drying fields, endangering thousands of farmed acres.
- Growers face reconditioning costs from mold risk and lodged sand particles.
- Early loss estimates suggest 60,000–70,000 tons may require damage control.
A late summer storm dumped more than an inch of rain in some parts of the central San Joaquin Valley of California on Thursday and Friday — causing headaches for growers with grapes laid out on hundreds of acres waiting to be dried into raisins.
While any amount of rain is generally welcomed in the Valley, it can wreak havoc for moisture-sensitive crops like raisins.
Fresno County is the center of the nation’s raisin industry, producing roughly 200,000 tons of fruit annually to be consumed as snacks, or in baked goods and breakfast cereals.
This time of year, farmers are in the process of drying grapes, primarily Thompson Seedless, to be made into raisins. Although there are different methods, the traditional practice involves cutting plump bunches of grapes off the vine and laying them on paper trays where they will dry into raisins.
Any significant amount of rain can cause the potential for mold; also possible is the lodging of tiny bits of sand in the skin of a drying raisin. Both problems require a costly reconditioning process.
Longtime raisin grower Monte Schutz said that about half his crop is still on the vine, waiting to be harvested. One of his biggest worries at this point is developing bunch rot on the cluster of grapes.
“If you had it before the rain, then it is going to explode now,” said Schutz, who farms in the Caruthers area.
Schutz said he spoke with farmers in Selma, Fowler and Caruthers who told him they got half an inch up to an inch and a half.
The National Weather Service in Hanford reported that the Fresno/Clovis area received three-quarters to an inch of rain.
Farmers are hopeful the mild weather in this weekend’s forecast will reduce the chances of mold developing. Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 80s with light winds over the next few days.
Other farmers weren’t as lucky as Schutz.
Charles Salmon, farmer and chairman of the Raisin Bargaining Association, estimates that about 75% of his 80-acre crop was hit by rain. In one area of his farm, some of the paper trays were nearly under water.
As an industry, Salmon said he is very concerned about the potential damage. He spent most of the morning Friday talking with growers throughout the region.
He estimated, based on his conversations with growers, that about 60,000 to 70,000 tons of raisins are in a “very bad state.”
“There is some stuff floating in water and that is going to be a total loss, but that is minimal,” he said. “The rest of it will have to be reconditioned, and that is going to cost the grower.”
It will take a few days for farmers to assess the damage, Salmon said.
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