‘Significant’ amount of Central Valley raisin crop could be impacted by recent rain

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Late-summer rain hitting the Central Valley has already started to cause problems for multiple crops around the region – crops, including raisins, one of agriculture’s biggest money makers.

For those left exposed to the elements, the consequences can be catastrophic.

“You can get what’s called slip skins, like where the skin comes off of the berry, and that really causes severe damage,” said Steven Cardoza, owner of Cardoza & Cardoza Farming Co. in Fresno County. “You also get embedded sand when they’re in the process of drying, and that rain is pelting those berries, it’s pushing the sand into the skin,” explained Cardoza.

Cardoza says while things could have been worse, they certainly weren’t unscathed.

“Probably around a third of all of our raisin production is either on the ground right now or hanging right now. So, it’s a very significant amount of tonnage that’s going to be impacted by this,” he said.

Cardoza says there are a projected 75,000 tons of raisins around the state in the same boat waiting to be harvested, out of roughly 180,000 tons produced in California each year.

Now, he says they’re praying for warm, dry, and maybe windy conditions to help save what they can.

“If we can have ideal weather conditions going forward, maybe minimize the damage. But we’ll see what the future holds,” he said.

While raisins and grapes in general are a primary concern around the region, the wet weather this time of year is a worry for many other growers, too.

“It can be things such as figs. It can be peaches, plums, nectarines. We’re kind of on the tail end of stone fruit, but there’s still some out there,” said Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of the Fresno County Farm Bureau. “Essentially, anything that we have that’s a fresh fruit or vegetable this time of year, that’s still out in the field, is likely to have some perishability during these times.”

Jacobsen and Cardoza say it’s going to take some time to calculate the exact effects of the rain, but both agree that there will definitely be some damage.