Topping almonds as the marquee crop in San Joaquin County is going to be a tough nut to crack.

The value of almonds grown in the county primarily around Manteca, Ripon and Escalon soared 54.35 percent in 2020 due primarily to a record yield and more bearing acres.

That made almonds by far the No. 1 crop in 2020 coming in at $694 million based on the latest production report issued Wednesday by the San Joaquin County Agriculture Commission Office.

Growers produced 182,600 tons in 2020 from 104,400 bearing acres for a per acre yield of 1.75 tons. That’s up from 89,990 tons in 2019 from 102,500 bearing acres with a 0.88 ton yield per acre. The value per ton dropped to $5,000 in 2020 from $3,800 the previous year as reflected in a 2019 almond crop value of $449 million.

Almonds were the top crop in San Joaquin County in 2019 as well  even after a wet and windy spring in 2019 reduced the crop enough to trigger a $48.9 million loss from 2018 production that came in at $536.2 million.

The amount of bearing almond acreage has more than doubled in the last four years. In 2017 there were only 75,400 acres of almonds in production. And that was up from 41,100 acres in 2016.

Overall ag production was up 15.79 percent from 2019 to reach a near record value of $3.03 billion. The 2019 countywide ag production was $2,671,815,000.

Grapes were the No. 3 crop at $340 million with 91,200 producing acres. That is down 4,700 acres since last year and 7,400 acres since 2018. Even so San Joaquin County is expected to still be the top wine grape producing county in the nation based on tonnage and not value.

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Walnuts were fourth at $291 million.

Strong prices kept eggs and chickens into the No. 5 spot with an overall value of $181 million. That follows almost a 50 percent increase in revenue that produced $160.3 million in eggs during 2019.

Pumpkins — Manteca’s signature crop — saw a healthy jump of $7 million to $31.88 million as 75,100 tons were shipped. It is the second straight year of pumpkin value growth after a $3.7 million jump over 2018 put the 2019 pumpkin value at $24.8 million as 59,900 tons rolled out of the area in 2019 compared to 57,800 tons worth $21.1 million in 2017.

The Manteca-Tracy-Ripon area has 2,310 acres dedicated to pumpkins grown specifically for holiday decorations producing more than 80 percent of California’s pumpkin crop.  

Watermelons, grown on 1,800 acres primarily in the Manteca, Ripon and Tracy area were worth $35.9 million in 2020, up from $33 million in 2019. There were 83,500 tons shipped as opposed to 101,700 tons in 2019.

Agricultural Commissioner Tim Pelican reported despite some trying circumstances, multiple commodities showed substantial gains in 2020. Pelican noted almonds remain the County’s number one commodity and continues to increase primarily due to a record yield and increase in bearing acres.

“This year’s theme focused on Story of Recovery and Resilience,” Pelican said. “2020 was a challenging year for the agricultural industry because of the global COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented wildfires. The virus, in conjunction with heavy smoke, caused agricultural market disruption and posed major threats to our workforce. We commend our agricultural industry for their resilience and ability to change their business models that allowed keeping the food supply chain open while following the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) COVID guidelines. It was tough but they made it work.”

Other highlights from the report included:

*Fruit and nut crops continue to be the largest in total value of $1,603,784,000

*Livestock and poultry products increased by 15.24 percent with a total value of $622,507,000

*Apiary products increased by 28.58 percent with a total value of $48,671,000

*Seed crop increased by 24.66 percent with a total value of $4,090,000

 To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com