ORANGE GROWERS WORRIED OWNERS SAY VALENCIA GLUT, PRICE SLUMP SQUEEZING OUT SMALL FARMS.

Byline: Jennifer Klein Staff Writer

VENTURA - Feeling the brunt of low prices and a glut of fruit on the market, many small growers of Valencia oranges said Wednesday that they are looking at other crops to replace their trees.

Growers suspected in May that Valencias, the county's No. 5 crop, would not do well enough to make up for the dismal preceding navel orange season, and they were right on the money, they said during a meeting of a local alliance of family farmers.

``I know I spend a lot of my time trying to figure out what's going on with Valencias,'' said Fillmore grower Tom Wilson, who has already replanted some of his acreage with avocados and is considering exotic fruit varieties for part of his land. ``Small family farms have their backs against the wall.''

With more than 10,300 acres of Valencia oranges in Ventura County last year, the crop was worth more than $70.7 million. The county grows 5 percent of the state's orange crop. Valencia oranges are primarily used for juices while navel oranges are marketed for eating fresh.

At a Wednesday meeting of the Ventura Lighthouse Farm Network, about a dozen Santa Clara Valley growers said the declining prices and poor quality of this year's Valencia crop are threatening their livelihood.

Hedrick Sanger, who primarily grows Valencia oranges in the Santa Paula area, said he uses certifiably organic practices on 15 acres of his 200-acre farm. This year he got $2 a box for oranges certified organic, compared with 50 cents a box for conventionally grown oranges.

``That seems like a way for the smaller farmers to go and still be able to make it,'' Sanger said. ``There is a niche market there.''

Sanger also suggested entering the late-season navel orange market, which extends into June, when Australians are the main late-season navel providers.

``Australian navels are selling for $1.99 a pound,'' Sanger said. ``We could produce a product that is as good as or better than Australian navels.''

Growers said they had expected the prices of both navel and Valencias to spike after the 1998 in the Central Valley, but prices didn't jump as much as they had hoped.

This year's Valencia season, which runs from late April through summer, was another poor one for profits, growers said.

``That was a dismal season,'' said Deputy Agricultural Commission Alan Laird. ``That's one of the worst seasons we've had in Valencias,'' he estimated, although annual crop reports from farmers are not yet in.

With another poor orange season behind them, some growers fear they have the wrong crop.

``If I had Valencias in the Santa Clara Valley, I'd be looking for something else to plant,'' said Bill Wilson, who grows lemons and avocados in Ventura County and oranges in Tulare County. ``It's not a local problem. It's a world problem. There's a glut.''