San Diego County growers begin to tally losses from wildfires, winds
United States
Tuesday 30 October 2007
Last week's wildfires destroyed as much as 20 percent of San Diego County's avocado crop, and losses will be in the tens of millions of dollars, an avocado industry spokesman said yesterday.
At least 3,500 acres of the county's 23,470 acres of avocado groves were damaged or destroyed in the fires, said Guy Witney, director of industry affairs for the California Avocado Commission.
It will be days, even weeks, before officials get accurate tallies of acreage and dollar losses, Witney and others said. But it is clear the losses will be significant.
“The economic impact is serious for sure,” Witney said yesterday.
Witney said the fires in the county, as well as high winds that whipped as far north as San Luis Obispo County, will cost growers at least US$35 million. The vast majority of the losses occurred in Fallbrook, Escondido, Valley Center, the Pauma Valley and Ramona.
That estimate only includes crop losses. Damage to buildings, vehicles and equipment – including costly irrigation systems – will also be in the millions of dollars, officials said.
A silver lining, Witney said, is that the losses seem to be significantly less than officials had feared during the early days of the fires. There were reports last Monday and Tuesday that as many as 20,000 acres of avocado groves had burned.
“I don't want to detract from the fact that individuals suffered enormous losses,” Witney said. “But given what we were hearing, the picture is not as bad as we had anticipated.”
Representatives from the avocado association, as well as officials from the San Diego County Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Farm Service Agency, fanned out across the county yesterday to begin assessing the damage and helping farmers.
At least 3,500 acres of the county's 23,470 acres of avocado groves were damaged or destroyed in the fires, said Guy Witney, director of industry affairs for the California Avocado Commission.
It will be days, even weeks, before officials get accurate tallies of acreage and dollar losses, Witney and others said. But it is clear the losses will be significant.
“The economic impact is serious for sure,” Witney said yesterday.
Witney said the fires in the county, as well as high winds that whipped as far north as San Luis Obispo County, will cost growers at least US$35 million. The vast majority of the losses occurred in Fallbrook, Escondido, Valley Center, the Pauma Valley and Ramona.
That estimate only includes crop losses. Damage to buildings, vehicles and equipment – including costly irrigation systems – will also be in the millions of dollars, officials said.
A silver lining, Witney said, is that the losses seem to be significantly less than officials had feared during the early days of the fires. There were reports last Monday and Tuesday that as many as 20,000 acres of avocado groves had burned.
“I don't want to detract from the fact that individuals suffered enormous losses,” Witney said. “But given what we were hearing, the picture is not as bad as we had anticipated.”
Representatives from the avocado association, as well as officials from the San Diego County Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Farm Service Agency, fanned out across the county yesterday to begin assessing the damage and helping farmers.
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