Organic strawberries are a small but fast-growing sector of U.S. agriculture, with numbers of growers and acres steadily increasing year over year.
But while financial returns can be impressive, growing organic strawberries is not for the faint of heart. Initial investment is high, management is complex, and even a flawless crop can fall victim to worker shortages, especially at harvest.
A report just released by the University of California Cooperative Extension, Sample Costs to Produce Organic Strawberries, 2014, breaks down the financial risks and rewards of growing organic berries on California’s Central Coast, the predominant strawberry-growing region in the U.S.
But amid the rows of figures, the report also gives an insider’s look at the elaborate measures required to bring organic berries to market, from hand-culling and weeding to sucking up insects with a tractor-sized vacuum cleaner.