Dressed in a red sweater and red-and-white-striped shirt, ag entrepreneur Cees Dobbe charmingly evokes the brightly colored flowers of his native Holland.
“I’m the Dutch guy who grew up in the tulip fields,” he said with a congenial laugh.
Dobbe is probably best known on the Central Coast for co-founding All Seasons Flowers—one of the largest cut flower producers in the state—in the 1980s. But for the last several years, he’s been focusing his efforts on a different flowering plant: the strawberry.
“We’re the new kids on the block with strawberries,” Dobbe said of his new business, DoVer Enterprises LLC.
DoVer Enterprises owns 300 acres of strawberry fields in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, the majority of which are leased out to other growers. Dobbe and his employees personally cultivate about 60 acres, growing Albion, San Andreas, and Benicia varieties.
Dobbe said DoVer Enterprises bought five acres of land last year “to get our feet wet” in the SLO strawberry industry. He’s planning to expand more in the next growing season.
There are various reasons Dobbe chose to leave the cut flower industry for strawberries. Like with most businesses, the economy played a big part.
“It’s a tougher time for growing flowers because they’re more of a luxurious item,” he explained. “There are so many things to get out of the strawberry industry. … I’m very enthusiastic about the opportunities it provides, and I think that’s why a lot of people get into it.”
Data collected by the San Luis Obispo County Agriculture Department shows Dobbe is right: More people are growing strawberries.
According to the 2011 county crop report, strawberry production grossed more than $179 million last year, making up 24 percent of the county’s combined ag revenues.
Growers planted a total of 3,159 acres, exceeding 2010 field space by approximately 741 acres. Those fields proved to be very fruitful; growers picked more than 119,000 tons of strawberries in 2011, with overall increases in both fresh-market and processed strawberries.
SLO Ag Commissioner Marty Settevendemie said those numbers were bolstered by good strawberry prices.
“There’s a lot of value in strawberries, and people are recognizing that with the conversion of vegetable fields into strawberry fields,” Settevendemie said, adding that the amount of vegetable crop acreage decreased by 5 percent due primarily to this conversion.
“We had varying weather conditions with a lot of rain at one point and then heat spells. There was a lot of hot and cold weather,” he continued. “We’re fortunate to have such a long growing season that if one planting is damaged by a weather pattern, the next one may not.”
The vegetables that suffered most were the ones most susceptible to diseases and mildew, such as Napa cabbage, peas, and leaf lettuce.
Settevendemie said moisture can increase the risk of crops contracting a disease.
Wine grapes—the county’s top crop for 20 consecutive years—didn’t fare nearly as well in 2011 due to a severe frost in April.
“There was a reduction in [wine grape] yields of more than 34 percent. That really hit the wine industry hard,” he said.
Despite strong prices and high demand, wine grapes were valued at a little more than $129 million—a 25 percent drop in total value compared to 2010.
Settevendemie cautioned that the annual crop report only represents commodity gross values and doesn’t include the ever-increasing costs of production such as transportation, labor, and fuel costs that impact profit margins.
Despite these costs, strawberries continue to flourish on the Central Coast.
“All crops have an ideal microclimate,” Dobbe explained, and the microclimate on the Central Coast is very favorable for strawberries. In fact, the Central Coast is the only region in California that can harvest berries practically year-round.
And don’t forget the most important component of agriculture: good soil.
“Strawberry farmers love sandy soil [because] it’s very easy to control what you’re growing,” Dobbe said. “When it rains, sand doesn’t get as soggy. There are less water issues.
“[DoVer Enterprises] could have gone anywhere in the county to grow strawberries, and we chose here because of the microclimate,” he added.
Dobbe said he also appreciates the support he’s received from other strawberry growers in the area.
“It’s not a conniving industry. There’s lots of land for everyone,” he said, and everyone has a niche or their own piece of the strawberry pie, so to speak.
DoVer Enterprises contracts with Central West Produce and sells its fruit to buyers throughout the nation.
“There are a lot of very creative farmers here,” he said. “In any business, you’ve got to stay at the forefront of what you’re doing. Everybody’s trying new things. In that respect, agriculture has changed dramatically in the last 30 years.”
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 19-26, 2012.
