Broccoli, wine grapes, and strawberries tend to jockey for the top spot each year in Santa Barbara County in terms of production value. The raw ingredient in pinots and chardonnays jumped up to second place in 2013, knocking the green vegetable down to No. 3, but the red berries that dot so much of the Central Coast landscape stayed secure in first with a total annual value of $464,723,994.
Head lettuce and avocados rounded out the top five for the county’s 2013 yields.
In the 2013 Santa Barbara County Crop Report, the county’s agricultural commissioner and director of weights and measures, Cathleen Fisher, reported a production value of more than $1.4 billion for the year—marking the eighth year in a row the county topped the billion-dollar mark.
While she noted drought-based negative impacts on bees, cattle, and avocados, she also reported an overall 10 percent increase in gross values over 2012.
This article appears in Jul 17-24, 2014.