In June, the Center sent a questionnaire about winegrape contracting practices to all 12,000 growers and wineries in California. Preliminary findings from this survey were reported by Dale Heien, Rachael Goodhue, and Hyunok Lee of the UC Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. A detailed report will be published by the Center later this summer. The average California grape grower has been in business 19 years, and with the same winery for nine years. The figures were generally similar in all regions.
Contracts are one form of risk management.
Participation is higher in the Central Valley than in coastal regions. The AIC has added 1998 data to update our new and more realistic system of estimating California's agricultural exports, developed last year in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Almonds, cotton and wine were the top exported commodities. Japan and Canada remained the largest export markets. In 1999, with the help of feedback on our 1995-97 data from industry and government sources, we refined our original methodology.