Farm Bureau: Growers losing money on major crops despite record production values
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — Ventura County's record $2.4 billion agricultural production value in 2025 masked a far more troubling number: some of the county's major crops cost more to grow than they earned.
Strawberries, Ventura County's number one crop, grossed $807 million in 2025. But Ventura County's favorite berry cost growers every penny of that $807 million to produce, plus $8.1 million more. Lemons, a crop deeply embedded in Ventura County's history and heritage, showed even worse returns, costing growers $203.5 million to receive $181.7 million in gross revenue.
Using production-cost data included in the County's 2025 Crop & Livestock Report, a first for any Crop Report in California, Farm Bureau of Ventura County calculates that real net return across the county's major commodity groups has collapsed approximately 80% compared to historic returns.
The gross figure has been falling in real terms as well. Ventura County remains the No. 10 producing agricultural county in the state, but adjusted for inflation, countywide gross crop value has declined approximately 19% since 2015 — leaving 2025, a record year on paper, roughly level with 2008 in real dollars.
"Ventura County agriculture still looks healthy from the road," said Louise Lampara, CEO of Farm Bureau of Ventura County. "The fields are planted, the orchards are green, the crops are growing. And that's exactly the problem: the landscape is hiding what's happening underneath it."
Agricultural Commissioner Korinne Bell included production-cost estimates in the 2025 Crop & Livestock Report to offer insight into the industry's economic health and provide much-needed context beyond gross production values. Yet the record $2.4 billion gross revenue number dominated media coverage and public discussion, while the economic warning contained in the same report received little attention.
The decline in net return cannot be explained by disappearing farmland. Countywide irrigated acreage is up approximately 3% since 2015. Farmland isn't disappearing. What's disappearing is the revenue remaining after it's farmed.
"We didn't lose ag land to a developer," Lampara said. "We're losing farming to policy."
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About Farm Bureau of Ventura County: Farm Bureau of Ventura County is the independent voice for agriculture in Ventura County, representing the broad and dynamic interests of the agricultural community. For more information, visit [WEBSITE].
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