-January 28.2022-
Looks like that bottle of ketchup will cost a little more. Join the club for other commodities from Kings County. Cotton growers, dairymen ,oil producers and now tomato growers will see higher returns in 2022. In most cases, the rise has been spurred by good demand but reduced supply. The California Tomato Growers Association has agreed to $105.00 per ton with all processors for 2022.The trade group considers $105.00 to be fair and reasonable Base Price for the industry, growers and processors alike, they say. This represents a 24.3% increase from 2021. The association board felt it was important to set a price prior to the first of the year in order to allow the members to make the best decisions for their operations in light of the reduced water supplies for 2022. Growers got about $79 a ton for the past few years.Both acreage and tonnage in California dropped in 2021.
Now, both are likely to go up, says USDA.
As of January, California’s tomato processors reported they have, or will have, contracts for 12.2 million tons in 2022, which is an increase of 10% compared to 11.1 million contracted tons forecast in August 2021. Processors estimate that the contracted production for 2022 will come from 245,000 acres, generating an average yield of 49.8 tons per acre. The contracted planted acreage forecast is 7% higher than the 2021 acreage of 229,000 reported under contract in August.
Friant launches construction of 10 mile canal
The long-awaited repair of the Friant-Kern Canal is underway with a groundbreaking ceremony near Terra Bella held in the past few days. Job one is to build a new canal some 10-miles long that will replace that portion of the 150 mile canal hardest hit by subsidence in southern Tulare County. Altogether, the plan will repair 33 miles of the key artery by January 2024.State and federal funds supplied most of the money for the $ 500 million project but the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency will provide $125 million for damage caused by the over pumping of groundwater. Since its construction in 1951 more than 50 percent of its original conveyance capacity in the middle reach has been lost due to land subsidence. Friant contractors are providing $50 million.