In eight years, the cost of growing strawberries in California has increased by 40 percent.
In 2016, farmers spent about $62,000 per acre of the red berry. By 2024, they were paying $105,000, according to Mohammad Amir Aghaee, who leads the entomology program at the Cal Poly Strawberry Center.
“When you have a situation like that, every cent matters,” Aghaee said. “Anywhere they can save money, they are looking for it.”
Aghaee studies insects—specifically the pests that can do so much harm to strawberry fields, including lygus, which can deform the fruit; the spotted wing drosophila, which lay eggs in the berries that eventually become tiny maggots; and two-spotted and Lewis mites, which can cause yield losses. He presented his research as part of the annual Strawberry Field Day on July 24, when growers, product manufacturers, students, and others in or interested in the industry toured the work the center has been doing in partnership with the California Strawberry Commission.
The entomology program researches how effective conventional and organic products are in helping to manage those pests.
“At the core of it, it’s to save the grower money, increase efficiency, and hopefully reduce inputs,” Aghaee said. “The goal, at least for the entomology program, is to make sure that the products that are being sold to growers are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
“I just let the data speak for itself,” he added. “I have to be neutral, … and the growers … will make their own decision.”
Strawberry Center Director Gerald Holmes said that farmers have a need—whether it’s more effectively treating pests and diseases or addressing labor shortages or costs—and the center can address that need through careful research. As the director since its inception 11 years ago, Holmes said about 150 Cal Poly students have gone through the program either through part-time work or as part of a masters’ degree. Currently, about 50 students participate in the center’s programs every year.
“You have a need, ability to address that need through research, and facilitate adoption,” Holmes said.
In addition, students have the opportunity to work closely with the industry, learn leadership skills, find their passions within farming, and lend their ideas to the future.
As groups walked down to the 3 acres of strawberry fields behind Cal Poly’s Technology Park off Mount Bishop Road, each person was required to snap a pair of green fabric booties around their shoes. No soil pathogens allowed in and none allowed out.
The smell of ripe strawberries wafted up as unmanned tractors and other devices rolled down the rows between tables and tents showcasing studies on pests, fungus like powdery mildew, automation, and new technologies.
“They can do a lot that we can’t,” said Jeff Quaglino with Quaglino Farms in Santa Maria. “We just don’t have the ability to do the testing, especially on the efficacy of different sprays. … They can get very granular and specific.”
He added that farmers like him can take what they need from the work done at the Strawberry Center and apply it or phase it into their own operations. For instance, multiple years showing one fungus treatment is better than others could give farmers an opportunity to apply fewer chemicals, which is the best outcome for the berries.
“If we can spray every 10 days instead of every seven, it’s beneficial over the lifetime of the crop,” he said, as an example.
Quaglino’s been farming for about a decade and focused on strawberries for the last three. He described the market as “really rough” over the last few years.
Strawberries were Santa Barbara County’s top commodity crop in 2024, netting more than $860 million, according to the most recent Santa Barbara County crop report. While San Luis Obispo County hasn’t released its crop report for 2024 yet, in 2023, strawberries were second to winegrapes, netting more than $274 million that year.
On July 1, Santa Barbara County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Matthew Maiten told the county Board of Supervisors that the numbers in the report only reflect gross values of the commodities—not profits.
“It does not consider the costs associated with labor, planting, irrigation, distribution, among other production activities,” Maiten said.
The market value of strawberries on store shelves has not kept up with the cost of what it takes to grow them, Quaglino said.
“Over the past few years, strawberry growers have struggled to make enough money to cover our costs to grow the crop. Just as people have seen their cost of living go up over the past few years. The agricultural industry has not been immune either,” Quaglino told New Times in a follow-up email after the field day. “To add to that, the sales price has been stagnant and/or lower than five-year historical averages week after week. Maybe it’s because the strawberry is not en vogue at moment like it once was or we just have too many acres producing.”
The big takeaway from the annual field day as a grower, he said, is being able to glean what they can and implement it on the farm “to save money and still produce a top quality berry.”
The California Strawberry Commission funds the center to the tune of about $1 million a year, which can be leveraged for federal and state research grants, commission President Rick Tomlinson said.
“We’ve been growing every year. It’s something that builds on itself,” he said. “The industry is doing this because we’re constantly searching for innovation.”
One example of how the center has helped innovate automation is increasing the efficiency of something called a bug vacuum.
The device rolls over crop fields and vacuums bugs off the berry plants. But with the help of research dollars, a collaboration with Driscoll’s, and students, the center was able to increase the machine’s efficiency by 400 percent. TRIC Robotics demonstrated a device that uses UV lights to kill pests before vacuuming them up, zapping the pests as it rolls through the fields, then sucking them into a catchment.
It’s the second year that the center has demonstrated that machine at the field day. While the device is still fairly new, and there aren’t many on the market yet, the center is the place where ideas like that can take root, Tomlinson said.
“You have the science to say, does this really work or how does this work,” Tomlinson said. “So a farmer can have an informed choice.” Δ
Editor Camillia Lanham loves a ripe strawberry. Send some to clanham@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.