The Irvine Company’s Orange County portfolio includes 25 million square feet of offices, 32,000 apartments—and 1,000 acres of avocado trees.
That puts the Newport Beach-based developer—better known for the Resort at Pelican Hill or Fashion Island—at the head of the food chain of farmers still tilling OC soil.
Irvine Co. doesn’t cast a shadow over local agriculture the way it dominates the office and apartment markets here. Its 1,000 acres under cultivation ties it with Irvine-based Orange County Produce LLC, which grows on patches of land spread all over OC.
A number of smaller growers here are multigenerational family farmers with roots that stretch into the last century—a track record on par with Irvine Co.’s 150 years on county land.
One difference is that Irvine Co. owns its acerage, a distinction it shares with C.J. Segerstrom & Sons LLC in Costa Mesa, which has about 40 acres of lima bean fields along the San Diego (405) Freeway as part of a portfolio that’s better known for the South Coast Plaza shopping center and nearby office buildings.
Hardly any other commercial growers in OC work on land they own these days.
There is one thing in common across the crop of local farm operations: All of the companies plan to continue into the foreseeable future.
“The [avocados] are going to remain as long as they’re economically viable,” said Peter Changala, vice president of agriculture operations for Irvine Co.
The developer’s avocado orchards are at the north end of Irvine near the Portola Springs and Orchard Hills developments. Changala, a 30-year Irvine Co. veteran, expects at least half of the 1,000 acres to remain even as the area continues to develop.
Cash Crops
He said an acre of avocado trees produces an average annual crop of 7,000 to 7,500 pounds and sells for 50 cents to $1.25 a pound based on fruit size—bigger avocadoes get a higher rate.
Midrange estimates indicate about $6.3 million in annual revenue, and the operation is believed to be profitable.
Changala is “the only agricultural employee of the Irvine Co.”
Another 20 to 45 workers—depending on season—are employed under the banner of Irvine Valencia Growers, which works the 1,000 acres of its parent; another 100 acres are leased to growers that produce strawberries, bell peppers and green beans.
One is Orange County Produce, led by former state food and agriculture department secretary A.G. Kawamura, who also leases dirt from the city of Irvine, the U.S. military, and Great Park developer FivePoint Communities.
The mix of parcels he farms changes each year, he said, as land goes to other uses.
“Sometimes we have our fields for only one crop.”
County data show local growers produced $132.5 million worth of crops in 2014, down 3% from 2013.
The value of berry crops and tree fruit, including local growers’ staples of avocados and strawberries, increased 11% in the same period.
Some 23,000 county acres still support agriculture, said Donna Barnes, a county deputy agricultural commissioner: 18,000 for “rangeland” for animals, and 5,000 divided about equally among tree crops; strawberries and vegetables; field crops; and ornamental nursery plants, such as palm trees.
“Orange County has a fantastic climate” for growing produce, said Barnes. “If you ever wanted to do it in an urban setting, go for it here.”
The 5,000 acres comes to about 1% of the roughly 506,000 acres of land in Orange County.
Swaths of county land taken by cities or sold for development over the past 60 years have become sites of homes and hotels for some of the same reasons that made the area a fertile locus of agriculture in the first place.
Real estate holdings of families such as the Segerstroms and Sakiokas—valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars—began with farms that grew lima beans and celery.
Family
A.G. and his brother Matt Kawamura are third-generation family farmers that pay and collect rents on farm operations.
Orange County Produce subleases land to Etchandy Farms, Fujishige Farms and Manassero Farms. They all are run by the third and fourth generations of immigrant families—Basque, Japanese, Italian—that got started with skills brought from their home countries to Southern California in the early part of the last century.
Other growers include Smith Farms and Tanaka Farms in Irvine, South Coast Farms in San Juan Capistrano, and at least two working vineyards: Giracci Vineyards and Farms in Silverado and Newport Beach Vineyards and Winery.
These ventures often offer other activities—there are educational programs at Tanaka and a grocery store selling jams and honey at the Manassero Farms in front of Irvine Valley College, a site it leases from Edison International.
Dan and Anne Manassero grow strawberries, green beans and tomatoes on 40 acres there and in Tustin and Brea.
McKay and Laurie Smith grow 7,000 flats of strawberries a season at about $60 a flat, and broccoli, artichokes and other vegetables on 15 acres in Irvine, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach.
Future
Acreage can come and go.
A 1.3-acre parcel in La Palma previously used for agriculture, the last such piece of land in the city, a spokesperson said, was being considered for a seven-home subdivision by the city’s planning commission last month.
‘Giving Way’
The Manasseros’ 40 acres is down from a recent 60, with dirt that once supported their strawberries now part of the future site of a new corporate campus for Irvine-based Broadcom Corp.
“Farming is giving way,” and it can’t touch the profitability of land development, said the Irvine Co.’s Changala—who is also the third generation of his family to grow food.
Kawamura said farming would continue here because of growing demand—more people who still need to eat—and new farming methods that do more with less land.
One effort is with Alegria Farms at the Great Park. It grows vegetables vertically and is developing soils with richer “microbial populations.”
Kawamura said Orange County Produce uses precise watering techniques and creates habitats for insects—wild bees, wasps, lady bugs—to grow food better.
“We’re in the middle of a renaissance of agriculture, reawakening to how important it is,” Kawamura said. “One of the greatest things the public can do is support locally grown produce [and] see it as an asset.”
