Business: Ideal weather conditions lead to best-in-years garlic production

Christopher Ranch VP says consumers should see California-grown garlic in markets all year round

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By Staff Reports

Due to ideal weather conditions this year, Santa Clara County garlic producer Christopher Ranch is on pace to distribute more than 105 million pounds of garlic, or more than one million bulbs.

Ken Christopher, executive vice president of the Gilroy-based company, said they saw a relatively cold winter, and warm spring and early summer, which is exactly what California garlic needs.

“This is the first time in a long time we’re seeing the perfect conditions to grow garlic,” Christopher said.

Christopher said garlic grows best in stable weather patterns, with a certain number of days that drop below freezing in the winter, and warm days in spring and early summer. Any rain after April can cause molding and decay in the bulbs, he said.

But weather has been unpredictable during the past few years, he said, with exceedingly hot temperatures in the spring and warmer winters followed by late rain, impacting the crop.

When he joined the company in 2010, they were growing about 70 million pounds of garlic.

“Since then we’ve slowly added additional acres, expanded market share, and improved our growing practices to achieve our current 2022 projection of 105 million pounds of California garlic,” he said. That’s the best since at least 2010, he said.

That’s a huge difference from just two years ago when the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and high demand for California-grown garlic devastated the national supply.

In 2021, they attempted to grow additional garlic to try to alleviate the surge of demand, but growing conditions were less than ideal.

“We had a warm winter, cool spring, and late rains, all of which were unideal for the garlic industry,” he said. “As garlic is grown once a year, we require a stable weather pattern throughout the year, and for the 2021 harvest that simply didn’t happen.”

This year’s increased production means consumers should expect to see fewer imports from across the world and more All-American garlic at their local grocery stores.

During the pandemic, when demand outstripped domestic supplies, garlic from Spain, Argentina, Egypt, Turkey, Peru, and Mexico showed up in supermarkets across the country. Now with demand stabilizing, and California inventories healthy, consumers should expect to see California garlic year-round.

“That being said, it’s up to restaurants and markets to choose American grown garlic,” he noted.

Most of Christopher Ranch’s garlic is grown within 100 miles of Gilroy and shipped back, so expect the familiar smell to hover over the region as it usually does during the summer months.

In the past few year, Christopher Ranch has invested in the nation’s largest garlic production plant in Gilroy.

“We now have the ability to run hundreds of thousands more pounds of California garlic every week through our facility than ever before,” he said. “That means that we’ve increased employment, which in turn will make an impact in and around the Gilroy area.”

As the company’s business expands, it can translate into multiple benefits for the city, the most impactful of which is the expansion of employment.

“More employees, more production shifts, and more overtime pay will undoubtedly help our local economy,” he said.

Harvest season wraps up in August, with the 2023 crop to be planted in mid-November.