{"id":39456,"date":"2025-11-05T17:37:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39456\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:37:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:37:32","slug":"fresno-county-regains-title-of-number-one-agriculture-region-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/39456\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County regains title of number one agriculture region in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=43UFTX_16InOJtH00\"<\/p>\n

Rebounding crop prices and an adequate water supply helped pushed Fresno County\u2019s agriculture industry into the number one spot in California with a record-setting production value of $9 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s total production value rose 5.7% from 2023, putting it ahead of Tulare County at a total value of $8.3 billion and Kern County at $7.9 billion .<\/p>\n

Fresno County\u2019s Agricultural Commissioner Melissa Cregan delivered the news to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday as part of her annual presentation of the crop and livestock report<\/a>. This year\u2019s report also recognized the industry\u2019s farmworkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout them, we would not be able to achieve the level of agriculture production that we have here in Fresno County that feeds the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a supplemental economic report<\/a>, Cregan noted that the county\u2019s agricultural contribution to the local economy was $21.6 billion and it generated 108,034 agriculture-related jobs.<\/p>\n

Cregan attributed Fresno County\u2019s showing to several factors including a rise in the prices of almonds, milk and beef. She added that one of the county\u2019s strengths is the diversity of what is grown in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are approximately 200 different commodities, 82 of which have a gross value in excess of $1 million, and Fresno County continues to supply the highest quality food and fiber nationwide and abroad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fresno County\u2019s farmers export 96 unique commodities to more than 91 countries with the top five export destinations being Mexico, Republic of Korea, Canada, Taiwan and Japan.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Buddy Mendes, a longtime farmer, joked that the rise in almond prices wasn\u2019t as spectacular as the numbers indicate. Almonds was the county\u2019s top crop with a gross value at $1.4 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make this a little simpler … the price went from really s—– to just kind of s—–,\u201d Mendes said.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Brian Pacheco, the only other farmer on the board, said that as a dairy operator he had one of the best years in recent memory.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Garry Bredefeld asked Cregan if the growing number of solar farms in the county is hurting agriculture by taking up usable farmland.<\/p>\n

Cregan said solar farms aren\u2019t the problem \u2014 it\u2019s the availability of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had all the water we needed, I would probably be against adding solar farms,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we know that is not the case. I think a lot of our family farmers are actually able to stay in business because this is another source of revenue that they are able to bring in on land that they don\u2019t have the water to farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau,<\/a> thanked Cregan and her staff for compiling the report and highlighting the accomplishments of the region\u2019s farmers and workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery farm, no matter how large or small, plays a vital role in supporting our community, our nation and our world,\u201d Jacobsen said. \u201cAs you know, California grows more than a third of the nation\u2019s vegetables and three quarters of the fruits and nuts, and a significant portion of those are grown right here in Fresno County.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rebounding crop prices and an adequate water supply helped pushed Fresno County\u2019s agriculture industry into the number one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[26,112,27073,114,113,23,25,3454],"class_list":{"0":"post-39456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-county-regains-title-of-number-one-agriculture-region-in-california","11":"tag-fresno-headlines","12":"tag-fresno-news","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-newsbreak","15":"tag-the-fresno-bee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}