02/24/06 Organic tree fruit view around US, Pt.2

There is no question that California agriculture is involved in the organic sector, what with two hundred crops registered as organically produced, $350 million dollars in declared sales by growers, and another declared $2.5 billion in sales of organic commodities by registered retailers. But as organic researcher Steve Swayze of the University of California Davis points out, the fruit industry, especially tree fruit, is just a small percentage of that action. SWAYZE: It's about ten per cent of the economic activity, and the registered acreage is a smaller percentage about five or six per cent. Those are actually fairly large figures for any industry, but the take home point is that tree fruit is a much smaller part of our organic industry than it is in the Pacific Northwest. Apples are the top organic fruit commodity in California according to Swayze. But he notes that as an industry, organic production has its share of benefits and challenges. SWAYZE: We have a very favorable bio environmental area in terms of temperatures, in terms of our summer fogs, and our fruit ripening timelines, so coddling moth control and mating disruption has been fabulously successful. I think there's some concern though about russeting and other kind of fruit quality issues with our scab control program. We're getting involved in lime sulfur and things like that on a more sustained basis. More organic tree fruit views around America will be shared in future programs.