Ag Alert October 7, 2020

Raisins Continued from Page 1

a supply-based cooperative to negotiate prices for itsmembers. “The raisins were being sold on a con- signmentbasisandthegrower gotwhatev- er thepacker decided theywanted topay,” Cardoza said. “When the RBA was estab- lished, itwas toget all thegrowers together cooperatively and negotiate for a higher price for all raisin growers. We decided to go back to a supply-based cooperative.” In late July, the RBAmade a price offer to packers of $1,500-$1,900 per ton, de- pending on total crop size, which packers rejected. In August, the association voted toholdgrower-members’ raisins in“mem- orandumstorage” and notified packers. Even with the smaller crop plus the ex- isting inventory, Cardoza said, “We have plenty of California raisins to take care of all of our customers here in the United States and overseas.” About 65%of theCaliforniaraisincrop is sold domestically, with the rest exported. Worldwide production totals 1.4 million metric tons, of which California supplies about 18%. People in the raisin business noted that domestic retail sales increased during the pandemic, as shoppers looked for healthy snack options while working or attending school at home. In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has purchased about 26,000 tons of raisins in the past 18 months for schools and food banks nationwide. (Christine Souza is an editor of Ag Alert. Shemaybe contactedat csouza@cfbf.com.)

many growers started laying down con- tinuous trays inmid-Septemberbuthadn’t picked upmany raisins because the fruit had not dried completely. Another issueis insect intrusionhappen- ingunderneathsomeof thegrapebunches that are drying on the trays, he said. “It’s been very challenging this year,” Rocca said. Raisin grower Dwayne Cardoza of Easton said some fruit had been sitting in the field almost 30 days due to the smoke- filled skies. The raisin crop was already short, hesaid, but “it’sgettingshorterevery daywith this smoke.” “We’rewaiting for the crop todry.We’re keeping our fingers crossed, but with this new fire from up north near Napa, that smoke is affecting the raisin crop,” said Cardoza,whoserveson theboardof direc- tors of the Raisin Bargaining Association. “The fruit is breaking down and if it starts to rot on the tray, thatwill decrease the size of the crop.” Kalem Barserian, RBA chief executive officer and general manager, said farmers canspeed theprocessbydrying raisinsat a dehydrator, but saidthat increasesproduc- tion costs, somanymaywait it out. Unlike winegrape growers, who face concerns about smoke causing off-flavors in their crops (see story, Page1), Barserian said the flavor of raisins would not be af-

Fresno County raisin farmer Randy Rocca says he and other growers face delays in finishing harvest due to smoky skies from wildfires that block the sun from drying raisins properly.

fectedby the smokebecause theyundergo a vigorous washing process before being packaged and shipped. Insomegrowingareas,Roccasaidheex- pects the raisincropcouldbeoff by 15%to 30%, but he added, “Wehave goodquality this year becausewith the lighter crop, the vines were able to sugar upmuch earlier.” Barserian said he expects the 2020 rai- sincrop to total about 215,000 tons, which would be significantly less than 2019 pro- duction of 260,000 tons—and could even be lesswiththesmokeandrelatedimpacts. In addition, 137,000 tons of inventory has

been carried over fromthe 2019 crop. “Our biggest challenge is keeping our price competitive on the world market,” Rocca said. “If we can keep our carry-in tonnagedownwith the lighter crop, hope- fully that is going to stabilize and set a bet- ter price fromthe packers this year.” California raisin acreage has dropped from280,000 in2000 to125,000 thisyear, as farmers replaced raisin grapes with other options, such as nut crops. Barseriancited “awholehost of reasons” fortheacreagedecrease,mainlycompetition withraisinsgrown indevelopingnations. “What’s happening is the growers can’t makea living,”hesaid. “Evenwhenwehad the benchmark price, it was like a seesaw. It’s still unknownwhere the price is going to eventually end up.” Barserian said the RBA plans to leave themarket-based or consignment system for crop pricing and return to its roots as

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Robot Continued from Page 9

CONFERENCE

“That’s where a robot would be de- ployed that would slowly walk through the vineyardwith a robotic arm,” he said. The robot, using a GPS receiver, ap- proaches the emitter and increases or decreases the flow. That was the last part of the project that was supposed to have been done this summer, Carpin said, but the research had to be postponed for the safety of researchers and students. In their earlier studies, he said, one lim- itation they found with the robot was it didn’t have enoughbattery life tomonitor all the emitters. “If you can only run for four hours, and there are way too many places you have to go, which ones are the places to go to make thehighest impact?”Carpinsaid—a question they are still working on. Carpin said the research has potential applications in other crops as well, and it couldalsohelpwithnutrient adjustments invine and tree crops, allowing growers to make precision application of nutrients and saving time andmoney. (Kathy Coatne y i s a repor t e r in Bend, Oregon. She may be contacted at kacoatney@gmail.com.)

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a robotic armto adjust the emitters. Because farmers already use technolo- gy such as infrared sensing and drones to monitor fields from the air to determine if individual plants are receiving too much or too littlewater, Carpinsaid, the research teamwanted to figure out how to adjust irrigation based on these aerial images. Images fromadrone identifyareas in the vineyard that aremore or less humid.With thisinformation,abaselinewasestablished, then the areas were identified that were over-orunderirrigated,soresearchersknew wheretoincreaseordecreasethewaterflow. Withthis information, amapwascreatedto beusedby the robot toadjust theemitters. Carpinsaidtheyalsolookedathowtoup- gradeexistingirrigationsystems thatwould be simple andcost effective. Ultimately, they settled on retrofitting existing irrigation systems with inexpen- sive, variable-rate plastic emitters that can be adjusted and cost about 20 cents each, Carpinsaid. The next step was to determine how to adjust them, Carpin said.

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20 Ag Alert October 7, 2020