BERR-LY BREAKING EVEN GROWERS HURT BY 2001 GLUT.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

OXNARD - Make all the strawberry shortcake and smoothies that you want - there's plenty of fruit to go around. And while that's good for the consumer, it's not so sweet for farmers.

Strawberries are ubiquitous in grocery stores and are expected to draw thousands to Oxnard this weekend for the annual California Strawberry Festival, yet independent growers are struggling to make ends meet.

The problem, they say, is the excess supply, which drives retail prices perilously low.

``When the buying public's trying to bottom-line you, it's pretty tough,'' said Mike Conroy, a 30-year farmer and president of Conroy Farms. ``We stick with it, but I don't know why.''

The farmers' cut on a pound of strawberries is a relatively high 76 cents, according to the most recent figures provided by the Western Growers Association. That compares with 24 cents for romaine lettuce or 17 cents for a pound of carrots. So strawberry growing seems lucrative.

Unfortunately for growers, greater land costs offset the gains.

The real challenge for strawberry growers is that the fruit has to be grown along the coast, said Heather Flower, spokeswoman for the growers association.

``The land is leased there, and it's much more expensive,'' she said. ``You put much more into renting your land, and then there's rising costs of both electricity and labor.''

Not surprisingly, grower Conroy agrees.

``We have $12,000 an acre invested by the time we pick our first strawberry,'' he said. ``The consumer pays $2.99 and they think, damn farmers, they're getting rich.''

Despite the high overhead, strawberries are growing in popularity as a crop on the Oxnard Plain. Now 7,777 acres of the fruit are planted, up from 7,591 acres last year, a 2.5 percent increase.

``For 2001, the Oxnard district is the only one that actually had an increase in planted acres,'' said Kerry DuFrain, deputy agricultural commissioner for Ventura County.

The increase is from a double planting, said Dominique Hansen, spokeswoman for the California Strawberry Commission. Oxnard's mild climate is attractive to farmers, whose crops can suffer from higher temperatures to the south or chilly locales to the north.

``Some growers have had an opportunity to plant a second crop in Oxnard,'' she said. ``It's situated perfectly on the coast, because it doesn't get too warm in the summer. They can start out in February and go to June, then start again on different land. We're almost a year-round crop now.''

And with the year-round availability comes excess supply, which worries growers.

Scott Deardorff, co-owner of Oxnard's Deardorff-Jackson and a 15-year farming veteran, saw prices sag too low in the fresh market in the last week, so he switched production for frozen operations, readying the berries for ice cream and other processed products.

With big chain retailers offering little for fresh fruit, growers are losing out, he said.

``They pound us for the lowest price possible, but the markup is horrendous,'' he said. ``When there's a glut, the consumer doesn't see it, because they still keep prices pretty high.''

Peter Larkin, president of the California Grocers Association, defended retailers' practices.

``If we were marking these items up at outrageous rates, two things would happen,'' he said. ``Customers would find other products, and our profit margins would go up, which they clearly aren't. It's not in the growers' best interest, or in ours.''

Though sides differ on money terms, both agree that strawberries are in definite oversupply. The flooded market has farmers like Conroy hoping just to break even.

``Why do we keep doing this?,'' he wondered. ``It's like getting hit in the head by a two-by-four. When I get up out of bed at 3 in the morning, I ask myself that question every day.''

Nonetheless, he'll keep at it.

``It's a way of life if you're a farmer,'' he said, his voice brightening slightly. ``It's tough to give up, since we're all eternal optimists. I hope next year will be better.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) A strawberry picker wears protective clothing to keep the sun off while working in the Oxnard fields.

(2 -- color) no caption (Strawberries)

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News