Economy

SoCal Berry Growers closes six Ventura County farms

Driscoll's supplier lays off 572 workers as water cost quadruples and labor nearly doubles, strawberries earned 807.8 million dollars and cost over 815 million to grow

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SoCal Berry Growers plans to cut ties with six farms in Ventura County, California, between January 11 and 25, 2027, eliminating 572 jobs (PA Archive/PA Images) SoCal Berry Growers plans to cut ties with six farms in Ventura County, California, between January 11 and 25, 2027, eliminating 572 jobs (PA Archive/PA Images) PA Archive/PA Images
SoCal Berry Growers supplies strawberries to Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry producer (Getty) SoCal Berry Growers supplies strawberries to Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry producer (Getty) Getty

SoCal Berry Growers, a supplier to the world's largest berry company, has told officials in Oxnard, California, that it will permanently close operations at six locations in Ventura County, with effects reaching farms along the Central Coast. Approximately 572 employees will lose their jobs between January 11 and January 25, 2027, according to the letter, reported by The Independent.

The accounting behind the exit was already public. A Farm Bureau of Ventura County study titled 'The $2.4 Billion Crisis' found that irrigation water rose from $22.10 per acre-inch in 2007 to $88.83 in 2025, and that hourly labor costs climbed from $13 in 2020 to $25.16 in 2025. Strawberries were Ventura County's top cash crop in 2025, generating roughly $807.8 million in revenue — and cost farmers more than $815 million to produce. Growers 'didn't make a penny and paid $8.1 million out of pocket,' the bureau's CEO, Louise Lampara, told SFGATE.

Farmers have little control over what grocery stores and other buyers pay for their crops, and the buyers' alternatives keep widening. Lampara points to record volumes of imported strawberries, avocados and lemons, grown under regulatory requirements that differ from California's. 'It's an industry in crisis,' she said.

The closure also lands on top of a labor dispute. SoCal Berry Growers' employees voted to unionize with the United Farm Workers in July. The company challenged the election, alleging misconduct; the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board upheld the result in August. United Farm Workers vice president Roman Pinal now calls the shutdown 'a clear violation of the law to avoid their legal and moral obligations to the workers who pick the strawberries.'

Driscoll's, the grower's customer and the world's largest berry producer, said it was 'deeply saddened' — 'a difficult day for California agriculture,' its spokesperson called it — and that its thoughts were with the farmworkers, their families and the communities that had depended on the operations for generations. The company already sources its strawberries from independent family farms in Florida, Mexico and Virginia, among other growing regions around the world. Next season's berries will carry the same label. The farms will be somewhere else.