Avocado Crops Decimated By Cold Temps

Jan. 17 - KGO -- Temperatures may be improving, but the big freeze is taking a toll on the state's crops. In many cases, it's simply a wipeout -- bruised, browned and blacked fruit frost bound beyond recognition or usefulness.

Just beneath the beauty of the snow capped mountains in Monterey County lies the ugly reality of the freeze and yet another grower's agony.

Kirk Williams, Avocado and Lemon Grower: "We've lost two years of crop guaranteed ."

Kirk Williams has 150 acres of avocados and 800 acres of lemons. He's assessing the damage tree by tree and what he's seeing is devastating.

Kirk Williams: "There's no chance whatsoever. This is a complete wipeout."

At least half of this year's avocados are ruined along with the buds for next year's crop and in some cases, the trees themselves. A cut that should reveal green and white, shows brown.

Kirk Williams: "Right here, this is shades of 1990. This is what we went through when we lost trees actually down to the graft point."

Frank Alegria is from Calavo, the world's largest packer and marketer of avocados. California grows 93 percent of the nation's avocados and the market is decimated.

Frank Alegria, Calavo Field Manager: "Areas of San Luis Obispo are 60 to 80 percent damaged. Areas of Santa Barbara County are 30 to 40 percent damaged. Areas of Ventura County are 50 to 60 percent damaged and those are the big avocado counties in the state."

Kirk Williams fought as hard as he could to save his crops. His strategy included hiring eight helicopters to fly over his trees for five nights.

That was on top of using 40 wind machines and 2,000 orchard heaters. The effort cost about half a million dollars. The fruit that survived will indeed be valuable as prices for avocados and lemons soar nationwide.

For Kirk Williams the freeze of '07 is a story of heartache and ultimately one of survival.

Kirk Williams: "Certainly we're down, but we're not out. We'll do that, we'll be back."

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