Orange County expanding northward in the face of urbanization
Orange County expanding northward in the face of urbanization
There was a time that strawberry fields dotted Orange County, the geographic region that gave Orange County Produce LLC in Irvine, CA, its name.
Urbanization, however, has taken over and Orange County Produce now sees much of its strawberry production come from Ventura County, about 90 miles north of the firm’s headquarters.
“We are now up to about 600 acres in the Oxnard area [in Ventura County],” said Matt Kawamura, director of sales and co-owner of the firm.
He said that about the only place there is open ground in Orange County is on the land that was once home to the area’s military bases. Much of that land will also eventually be developed so the handwriting is on the wall: Orange County the area will not be producing strawberries indefinitely.
While Kawamura knows that to be true, he also said, “For the past 30 years, they have been telling us Orange County will be done in five years.”
It hasn’t quite happened, but strawberry acreage has declined, forcing Kawamura’s firm to look elsewhere.
The company is also a significant grower of green beans, and it has shifted about half of its production to the Baja California region of Mexico in recent years. That area is also home to a good crop of winter berries, but thus far Orange County hasn’t invested in Mexican berries.
“We’ve looked at it, but it’s not that easy down there either,” said Kawamura. “Baja has both water and labor issues. We might have to consider it. Mexico is getting bigger [in strawberry production] every year.”
The company is also looking further north to Santa Maria, which is another 90 miles north of Oxnard. One of the drawbacks of having production in many different areas, according to Kawamura, is that it takes away from the firm’s “local vendor” advantage.
Orange County Produce markets itself as a local supplier of berries to many different Orange County outlets. It loses a tad of that “locally grown” panache by expanding out of the area.
That family-owned, locally grown feel that it tries to communicate to its customers is helped with the addition of Matt’s son, Paul, to the sales team. Paul joined the company a couple of years ago and is making the farming business his career.
“The fourth generation of our family is in the business,” Kawamura said proudly.
The company is also proud of its organic strawberry production. Strawberries are a very difficult crop to grow organically as ground fumigation after the season is not an option. That is a growth area and Orange County Produce has about 300 acres of land that it devotes to organic berry production on a rotating basis to produce those 80 acres each year.
