The Greensheet
Volume 27 | Issue 23 | November 28, 2011

Return to The Greensheet Home Page

The Greensheet is CAC's bi-monthly industry newsletter, designed to provide California Avocado Industry members with timely and valuable news and information, regarding meetings, industry issues, cultural management/best practices, production research, CAC's marketing program, commission operations and more.

In This Issue You'll Find:

Vertebrate Pest Damage Survey
CAC Seats a New Executive Committee
2010 SURE Program Now Accepting Claims
International Foodservice Editorial Council Conference Wrap-up
Fall 2011 California Avocado Tracking Study Part One: Demand for California Avocados
 Market Trends
Weather Outlook

 

Calendar

California Avocado Commission November Meeting Schedule

For a listing of industry events and dates for the coming year, please visit:
http://www.californiaavocadogrowers.com/upcoming-meetings-events/

Central Coast Agricultural Water Quality Coalition Informational Grower Meeting – Friday, December 16, 2011 – 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 651 Tank Farm Road, SLO 93401

CAC Board Meeting – Wednesday, January 11, 2012 – Time TBD at CAC office, 12 Mauchly, Suite L, Irvine, CA 92618

HAB Board Meeting – Thursday, January 12, 2012 – Time TBD at HAB office, 230 Commerce, Suite 190, Irvine, CA 92602

CAS Grower Seminars – February 7 (SLO), 8 (Ventura), 9 (Temecula), 2012 - Winter Irrigation and Water Use in San Luis Obispo & Other Avocado Varieties and Their Feasibilities in Ventura & Temecula

  • San Luis Obispo: Tuesday, February 7, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
    Cooperative Extension County Office/Auditorium, 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo
  • Ventura: Wednesday, February 8, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
    Ventura Government Center/Lower Plaza Assembly Room, 800 South Victoria Ave., Ventura
  • Temecula: February 9, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
    Temecula Community Recreation Center, 30875 Rancho Vista Road, Temecula

For a complete listing of the 2011-12 CAS Grower Seminars, here is the current schedule provided by CAS.

Vertebrate Pest Damage Survey

Vertebrate pest damage can be a serious problem for growers in California. Many of the tools that were used to prevent damage in previous decades are no longer allowed, and some current options are under continuous threat of being banned. In part, this is because the general public and policymakers don’t fully understand the benefits of controlling vertebrate pests. While the perception may be that control only benefits growers’ bottom line, the truth is that the benefits are much more extensive. Effective pest control means consumers spend less money on the food they buy. A better bottom line for growers and more money in consumers’ pockets ultimately means a healthier California economy with more jobs.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture in cooperation with the USDA-APHIS National Wildlife Research Center, is conducting a vertebrate pest damage survey to address these issues. The information you provide will allow the measurement of the benefits of vertebrate pest control in California, and will help ensure that a variety of pest control tools remain available to you.  The objective of the study is to estimate the benefits of controlling birds, rodents, and feral hogs in California agriculture (excluding livestock and dairy). As many agriculture professionals are aware, there has been a gradual restriction in ability of growers to use methods that would control many of these agricultural pests, in part because policymakers and the public lack a complete understanding of the benefits of control and the extent of the damage. To address this, we will examine the benefit of controlling these pests in terms of the impact on grower revenue and income, and on other regional economic performance indicators.

The survey provides the key data for this study. Specifically, it will tell us:

  • what the current level of damage is,
  • what type of pest control methods are being used,
  • how effective these methods are / what damage would be if there was no control.

The survey will be provided online through Survey Monkey and roughly takes five minutes to complete. It is anonymous and no personal information is collected, although respondents do have the option of entering their email address if they would like to have the results of the study sent to them.

CDFA has recently acquired a state-of-the-art regional economic modeling software program called REMI that will allow us to estimate how control of birds, rodents, and feral hogs benefits the California economy in terms of employment and output.

The key benefits of pest control that will be reported are:

  • higher grower revenue and income,
  • lower commodity prices,
  • higher employment and output throughout the California economy.

The survey is designed to collect data on as many different crops as possible, and results will be reported separately for each crop and for each type of pest. Results of the survey and the economic study will be presented in a detailed report, USDA factsheets, press releases, and a manuscript published in a scientific journal. These materials will be made available to the survey collaborators and participants when completed.

To complete the survey, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/crop_2.

CAC Seats a New Executive Committee

At its November 17, 2011, Board meeting, the California Avocado Commission seated a new slate of board members comprised of both returning and new faces.  Upon commencement of the meeting, board members selected the following individuals to serve as members of the Executive Committee:

  • Chairman, Ed McFadden
  • Vice Chairman, Doug O’Hara
  • Treasurer, John Lamb
  • Secretary, Bob Schaar

Assuming the role of Chairman, Ed McFadden made the following opening remarks to the newly seated board: 

“My instincts are to say, let’s get busy, let’s get to work. First of all, I think that the staff we have here now, under Tom’s leadership, is the leanest, meanest staff I’ve ever seen.  I think that they are poised to work and that it’s up to us to enable them and not get in the way.  Looking around this table now, I see a board of directors that has the best potential for working together that I’ve seen since watching this board.  I started in the mid-90’s, just coming to meetings, seeing what was going on, before I was ever involved.  And looking around here, I’m really impressed.  I’m really looking forward to working with everybody.  I’m honored to be here, and I think we’ve got a great team.”

Approved at the November CAC Board Meeting is a schedule that includes six board meetings, two of which are scheduled to be held off-site (Ventura and Fallbrook) to allow for grower accessibility.  Take a look at the calendar for the coming year and plan to attend!

2010 SURE Program Now Accepting Claims

USDA's Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) program provides benefits for farm revenue losses for 2008 through September 30, 2011 due to natural disasters.  The USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) is currently accepting claims for crop losses incurred in 2010.  In order to qualify for assistance through the SURE program, a number of conditions must be met; however, basics about the SURE program are outlined below:

 

  • Eligible farms must be located in a county covered by a qualifying natural disaster declaration (USDA Secretarial Declarations only) or a contiguous county OR the actual production must be less than 50 percent of the normal production
  • Producers must have obtained a policy or plan of insurance for all crops through either the Federal Crop Insurance Act or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP)
  • For 2009 and subsequent crop years, producers or legal entities whose average nonfarm income exceeds $500,000 are not eligible
  • Producers must suffer a 10 percent production loss to at least one crop to be eligible for SURE. For a loss to be a qualifying loss, it must be caused by a natural disaster
  • The sign‐up period for the 2010 SURE program is currently underway, with a deadline for claim filing of June 1, 2012
  • Producers must sign‐up at their county FSA office
  • Information needed for sign‐up includes:
    • Acreage and production records, if not already provided to FSA for crop insurance purposes
    • Information to establish your farm (deeds, leases)
    • Other information as requested by FSA

Further details regarding the SURE program can be found on the USDA/FSA's SURE fact sheet, or by contacting your local Farm Service Agency personnel.

International Foodservice Editorial Council Conference Wrap-up

The California Avocado Commission (CAC) participated in the annual International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) conference on November 7-10th in Washington, D.C. to meet with foodservice publication editors and discuss editorial placements for the following calendar year. During the three-day conference, CAC met with 10 publications to confirm editorial commitments to ensure targeted placements in the foodservice print and online press.

To build awareness for Fresh California avocados with local chefs, CAC sponsored the Chef Showcase Reception. Nora Pouillon, a nationally acclaimed chef and organic produce advocate, presented two Fresh California Avocado salads featuring other seasonal ingredients for sampling: California Avocado with Mango, Balsamic Caviar and Cilantro Lime Dressing and California Avocado with Pineapple Carpaccio, Pomegranate Vinaigrette and Toasted Cashews.

CAC also co-hosted a dinner for nine editors from Restaurant Business, Food Management, FoodService Director, Flavor & The Menu, FARE, School Nutrition, QSR (Quick Service Restaurant), and Mintel Food & Drink (foodservice research) at America Eats Tavern, a pop-up restaurant operated in conjunction with a National Archives exhibit that celebrates American agriculture, food policy and cuisine. The dinner provided the opportunity to encourage the editors to feature new menu applications in their publication.

Fall 2011 California Avocado Tracking Study Part One: Demand for California Avocados

The results are in for the 2011 Avocado Tracking Study which monitors consumer insights into avocado advertising in both core and new demand markets throughout the United States. We’ll cover the Fall 2011 study results in the next several Greensheet issues.

The study has been conducted since 1994 by CAC and more recently been funded by the Hass Avocado Board allowing for expansion from the traditional Fall wave of tracking to include a Spring wave of research monitoring the effectiveness of avocado advertising.

To monitor awareness, purchase frequency, California identity, usage and information on consumer attitudes about origin, 2,027 grocery shoppers were surveyed via an online questionnaire. This is the sixth year that the survey has been conducted online; prior to 2005, the annual surveys were conducted via telephone. In this edition of the Greensheet, we’ll focus on the demand for California avocados.

Avocado consumers in the CAC ad markets overwhelmingly prefer California avocados. When asked “if given a choice, which avocados would you pick?” 65 percent of respondents in the ad markets preferred California avocados specifically. Within the ad markets, 19 percent avocado consumers who don’t prefer California avocados specifically express “it doesn’t matter where they are grown.”

The importance of being grown in the U.S. has increased substantially in the ad markets since 2006 and has returned to original levels (from 1997) in the remaining U.S. The importance of being grown in the U.S. is particularly important to Californians.

Additionally, the number of consumers who normally check where avocados are from has increased significantly over time in both ad markets and the remaining U.S. as well, from under 20 percent since 2006.

Consumers claim the top reasons for checking the origin of avocados is because they like/trust locally grown, California and U.S. produce or they feel locally grown is fresher or safer. These insights continue to play a valuable role in the development of CAC marketing messaging.

Check back for the next edition of the tracking study, which helps explain how avocado advertising is having an impact. Or, view the tracking study in its entirety right now by clicking here.

California Market Trends

To view all market trend graphs, including “Avocado Volume Summary,” “Weekly Price Range” and “U.S. Avocado Supply,” please visit: http://www.californiaavocadogrowers.com/market-information/.

Weather: 30-Day Outlook For California’s Coastal & Valley Areas

In the Near Term – through December 10... The Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) has returned to a pattern that more actively supports a ridge over the western U.S. and California until about December 10. This supports a movement of troughs to the northeast as they approach the California coast.

The Arctic Oscillation Index (AO) is expected to remain positive. Most importantly, it is in phase with the MJO (mentioned above) and also the current La Niña anomaly. All three of these conditions currently support the development of a stable ridge pattern over California -- at least in the near term.

However, as mentioned above, the SSTA pattern west of California supports the development of lows and troughs near the central coast. This is not in phase with the other forcing factors. The most likely result, after the first week of December, could be a return of erratic cutoff lows. Some of these may be quite strong and have the potential to generate localized and heavy rains.

In the Near-Term - Southern California Avocado Region...through December 10… The significant rain events have ended for now. However, there will be cutoff lows developing in Arizona on the 29th and 30th, and again on December 2 to 4, associated with a possible Yukon Express event. A freeze would be most likely to occur before and following Santa Ana wind events. These may occur around the last couple of days of Nov and December 3 to 6. There should be a continuing risk of freezes in the valley areas of southern California from December 6 to 10, although the foothills will be warmer.

December 11 to 20… The Arctic Oscillation (AO) will be exerting more influence and will try to maintain an active storm track into northern and central California. This will maintain the transport of moist, though colder than normal, airmasses into California.

The MJO influence will again bring a period of troughing with the storm track trying to reactivate into central Calif. This would tend to cause more cutoff lows and risk of localized heavy rain events similar to those we have seen in November. Also, showery conditions in this pattern would extend into western Mexico with cold frontal passages there as well above normal risk of frosts and freezes in the cold airmasses behind the fronts.

December 11 to 20... Southern California Avocado Region... As mentioned, troughing and cutoff lows will tend to occur, with frosts and freezes alternating with rain events. Watch for a higher than normal risk of freeze and wetbulb freeze events. For the bottom line, expect colder than normal conditions overall for the middle of December in the avocado regions of southern California with the risk of freezes and near normal rainfall.

Seasonal Outlook/El Niño Update... January to April 2012… The latest trends in the expected SSTA field support near or wetter than normal conditions in central and southern California. The warmer than normal SSTAs are too distant from northern California to support above normal rainfall there. The scenario for early spring (March and April) is now looking to be drier and colder than normal based on the expected SSTA in the east Pacific off northern and central California.

....Southern California Avocado Region Seasonal Update...(January to April 2012)… Latest indicators support a near normal precipitation scenario for the southern California avocado regions. The bottom line is that it will be colder than normal. Make sure you are well prepared for frosts and freezes, and review procedures for wetbulb freeze events. We cannot rely on the westerlies to remain strong through the winter. During periods of weaker westerlies, we can easily return to a pattern more favorable for Yukon Express and and robust freeze events.

...Alan Fox, Fox Weather LLC...

Return to The Greensheet Home Page

 

Materials From the August CAS/CAC/UCCE Grower Seminar Series On Fertilizer Strategies