Raisin Farmers Run Dry After Another Year of Overproduction

SAN FRANCISCO — Rod Weis hocked his 360-acre ranch and home in Madera to finance his raisin crop this year. He says his future hinges on success with the vineyards planted by his father more than 40 years ago.

“Our home is in jeopardy,” he said. “If we don’t make it now, there’s nowhere to turn.”

This year will be the third in a row that California will produce 1 1/2 times as many raisins as the world markets have room for, and many of the about 5,500 growers in the area around Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley think that their business has gone sour.

“They liken this to the Depression, or worse,” said Frank Light, president of Sun-Diamond Growers, the largest raisin cooperative in the valley. “There’s qualitative proof that this damn thing has collapsed.”

In an effort to hold on, raisin promoters have cut prices of exported raisins by half, and slashed prices of domestic raisins by one-third. They’ve boosted marketing and advertising for their products.

This year, the industry tried to counteract a raisin surplus by paying growers not to harvest 30,000 acres of raisins.

Although sales are up 25% this year, growers’ coops are still taking a loss, they say.

Cited as reasons for the faltering raisin business are wine imports that have cut into the market, unwise loans, increased sophistication of European raisin growers and falsely inflated prices that lured speculators into the field.