The Northstate experienced a frost in February that was possibly detrimental to almond and prune crops.

This week and the next, Butte County will be speaking with growers and conducting a field survey to determine how much of the crop has been destroyed.

If more than 30% of the county's almond and prune crops are damaged then the county can file a disaster declaration with the CA Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), the CA Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

"If the USDA signs off on it, then it allows Small Business Administration loans up to probably half a million dollars for growers who were impacted because of the freeze," said Butte County agricultural commissioner, Louie Mendoza.

According to Butte County's 2020 Crop Report, almonds were the county's second million-dollar ag commodity grossing more than $147-million. Prunes were the fourth, grossing more than $28-million.

"Agriculture is a vital component in Butte County. It's our number one industry in the county. Almonds in 2020 were valued at $147 million. You can imagine what a 30% crop loss on that would be equivalent to, today would be about $44 million that did not go back to our growers as gross income because of the loss of production."

Based on phone calls Mendoza has already had with some growers, certain areas were impacted more severely than others. He said certain varieties in certain areas experienced 75-90% loss. 
 

If Butte County did not experience a 30% crop loss for almonds and prunes, there is a chance growers could still receive loans if a surrounding county did experience a 30% crop loss.

"If one of the surrounding counties has a 30% crop loss for almonds or for prunes because we're a contiguous county, we are included in the Secretarial Disaster Declaration. We would not be a primary county, but it would be a contiguous County."

Mendoza said they hope to have the results of the assessment by next week.

Source - https://krcrtv.com