California Agriculture: Monterey
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April 12, 2022
The coastal county of Monterey is fourth, with farm sales of $4 billion, followed by Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, where farm sales are almost $2 billion each. In the three coastal counties, the leading commodity by farm sales is strawberries.
The three major coastal farming counties have 600,000 acres of irrigated crop land, half in Monterey county, or eight percent of the state’s irrigated crop land, but they produce $8 billion worth of farm commodities a year, over 15 percent of the state’s farm sales.
Monterey. Some 300,000 acres of Monterey county farm land is irrigated, and most of Monterey’s irrigated crop land straddles Highway 101 that runs north-south through the center of the county. Monterey’s harvested crop land exceeds 300,000 acres because some land can produce two or more vegetable crops a year. Two thirds of Monterey county’s farm land is pasture.
Monterey’s 300,000 acres irrigated crop land lie along Highway 101
Monterey county had farm sales of $4 billion in 2020, almost three-fourths from vegetables, making Monterey the US salad bowl. The leading commodity was strawberries worth $920 million, followed by leaf ($710 million) and head ($430 million) lettuce.
Lettuce and strawberries accounted for over half of Monterey’s farm sales in 2020
| Crop | 2020 Crop Value | 2020 Crop Ranking | 2019 Crop Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strawberry | $922,683,000 | 1 | 2 |
| Leaf Lettuce | $712,681,000 | 2 | 1 |
| Head Lettuce | $428,580,000 | 3 | 3 |
| Broccoli | $341,495,000 | 4 | 4 |
| Cauliflower | $192,790,000 | 5 | 5 |
| Spinach | $141,284,000 | 6 | 10 |
| Nursery & Flowers | $119,836,000 | 7 | 9 |
| Brussels Sprout | $116,250,000 | 8 | 7 |
| Celery | $114,920,000 | 9 | 12 |
| Livestock & Poultry | $110,891,000 | 10 | 11 |
Since 2000, head or iceberg lettuce has lost its dominance to leaf lettuces such as Romaine.
Leaf lettuces have replaced head lettuce as most planted and valuable
| Head Lettuce | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crop | Year | Acreage | Production per Acre | Total | Unit | Value per Unit | Total |
| Naked | 2020 | — | — | 5,796,000 | ctn | $11.30 | $65,495,000 |
| 2019 | — | — | 5,656,000 | ctn | $13.60 | $76,922,000 | |
| Wrapped | 2020 | — | — | 20,548,000 | ctn | $13.80 | $283,562,000 |
| 2019 | — | — | 21,536,000 | ctn | $14.90 | $320,886,000 | |
| Bulk | 2020 | — | — | 283,000 | ton | $281.00 | $79,523,000 |
| 2019 | — | — | 306,000 | ton | $380.00 | $116,280,000 | |
| Head Lettuce, Total | 2020 | 39,007 | 1,005 | 39,202,000 | ctn | — | $428,580,000 |
| 2019 | 40,277 | 1,020 | 41,083,000 | ctn | — | $514,088,000 | |
| Leaf Lettuce | |||||||
| Crop | Year | Acreage | Production per Acre | Total | Unit | Value per Unit | Total |
| Butter Leaf | 2020 | 939 | 950 | 892,000 | ctn | $10.40 | $9,277,000 |
| 2019 | 1,045 | 950 | 993,000 | ctn | $10.90 | $10,824,000 | |
| Endive | 2020 | 329 | 900 | 266,000 | ctn | $11.30 | $3,006,000 |
| 2019 | 318 | 1,100 | 350,000 | ctn | $9.26 | $3,241,000 | |
| Escarole | 2020 | 236 | 900 | 143,000 | ctn | $12.30 | $1,759,000 |
| 2019 | 171 | 1,100 | 188,000 | ctn | $13.50 | $2,538,000 | |
| Green Leaf | 2020 | 4,779 | 950 | 4,540,000 | ctn | $13.30 | $60,382,000 |
| 2019 | 6,406 | 950 | 6,086,000 | ctn | $10.59 | $64,451,000 | |
| Red Leaf | 2020 | 2,694 | 950 | 2,559,000 | ctn | $12.50 | $31,988,000 |
| 2019 | 3,194 | 950 | 3,034,000 | ctn | $11.10 | $33,677,000 | |
| Leaf Lettuce, Bulk | 2020 | — | — | 34,800 | ton | $581.00 | $20,219,000 |
| 2019 | — | — | 35,100 | ton | $630.00 | $31,059,000 | |
| Romaine, Fresh | 2020 | 33,410 | 1,000 | 33,410,000 | ctn | $13.90 | $464,399,000 |
| 2019 | 35,203 | 1,000 | 35,203,000 | ctn | $14.28 | $502,699,000 | |
| Romaine, Bulk | 2020 | — | — | 239,000 | ton | $509.00 | $121,651,000 |
| 2019 | — | — | 238,000 | ton | $807.00 | $192,066,000 | |
| Leaf Lettuce, Total | 2020 | 54,912 | — | 54,802,000 | ctn | — | $712,681,000 |
| 2019 | 58,846 | — | 58,728,000 | ctn | — | $840,555,000 | |
| Lettuce Crops Total | 2020 | 93,919 | $1,141,261,000 | ||||
| 2019 | 99,123 | $1,354,643,000 | |||||
Most head and Romaine lettuces are harvested and wrapped in plastic in the field for sale to consumers, and such field-wrapped lettuces accounted for two-thirds of the value of all lettuce in 2020. Bulk lettuces are harvested and placed in bins for processing into bagged salads.
Most head and Romaine lettuce is bagged in the field
The 10,000 acres of strawberries in Monterey county generated 35 tons an acre worth $2,600 a ton or $1.30 a pound. A quarter of Monterey county’s lettuce acreage, and a third of the county’s strawberry acreage, is organic.
Workers harvesting strawberries
Monterey wine grape acreage has been stable at 45,000 acres, but tonnage and the value of wine grapes fluctuate. Monterey wine grape production peaked at 200,000 tons worth almost $250 million in 2014, and was less than 100,000 tons worth about $100 million in 2020 due to fires that led to over 10 percent of the county’s wine grapes not being harvested.
Monterey wine grape production and value fluctuates
Cannabis is not included in these farm sales data. Monterey county is a leading producer of cannabis. County farm-level sales were almost $500 million in 2020, including 85 percent from mixed light flower, meaning that the cannabis was grown in a greenhouse with natural and artificial light.
Most cannabis relies on natural and artificial light
| Product | Production | Unit | $ per Unit | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery Products | 2,063,000 | Each | $11.00 | $22,693,000 |
| Flower (Mixed Light) | 460,000 | Pound | $900.00 | $414,000,000 |
| Flower (Indoor) | 36,200 | Pound | $1,100.00 | $39,820,000 |
| Trim | 99,300 | Pound | $75.00 | $7,448,000 |
| Seed | 141,000 | Each | $1.00 | $141,000 |
| Total 2020 | $484,102,000 | |||
| Total 2019 | $449,688,000 | |||
Employment. Employment in Monterey county agriculture averages 50,000, which suggests that up to 100,000 individuals are employed for wages on county farms sometime during the year due to seasonality and turnover. Average direct-hire employment in crops (NAICS 111) has been stable at about 19,000 since 2010, but average employment in crop support services (1151) almost doubled to 35,000 in 2020.
Direct-hire average crop employment (blue) has been stable in Monterey since 2000, while average crop support employment almost doubled
About two-thirds of employment in Monterey crop support services is with FLCs (115115), whose average employment was 22,000 in 2020. However, the fastest growth in crop support employment has been in post-harvest sorting and packing, 115114, where average employment almost tripled to 11,000 in 2020.
Average weekly wages in crop support were lower than direct hire wages until 2016, when crop support wages of $705 were five percent higher than direct-hire’s $680 a week. Crop support wages remain five percent higher at $815 versus $785 for direct hires in 2020.
Within crop support, FLC weekly wages of $680 in 2020 were 85 percent of the $815 average for all crop support workers, and this ratio has been stable over the past two decades. Post-harvest sorting and packing wages, by contrast, fell from 50 percent above average crop support wages to 35 percent above or almost $1,100 a week in 2020.
The average weekly wages of crop support workers (orange) have been higher than the wages of direct-hire crop workers since 2016
These employment and wage data include H-2A workers. Monterey county had 6,400 jobs certified to be filled with H-2A workers in FY20, a quarter of all H-2A jobs in the state.
County Ag Commissioner Reports
https://www.co.monterey.ca.us/home/showpublisheddocument/103876/637622804394330000
https://www.countyofsb.org/uploadedFiles/agcomm/Content/Other/crops/2020.pdf
https://cdn.ventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Agriculture-Commissioner-2020-Crop-Report.pdf