It’s a very small undertaking, about 30,000 trees on three dozen farms. Yet Californians are willing to pay $18 for a cup of locally grown coffee, says the Food Observer, produced by the University of California. “To make the most of their precious water, Southern California farmers have begun experimenting with coffee plantings and producing beans that fetch a premium.”
Out of the 30,000 trees, “only a relatively small amount of the planted acreage is producing now,” said cooperative extension adviser Mark Gaskell, who works with coffee growers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Gaskell anticipates more trees will be planted in the new year because demand for California coffee is likely to exceed the supply for some time.
Coffee has been planted from Morro Bay to San Diego, mostly in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Diego counties. Valeria Mellano, of the plant sciences department at Cal Poly-Pomona, says the school is trying to identify the best coffee varieties for the region. At the moment, coffee is planted in coastal areas. Cal Poly-Pomona is looking into varieties that could be grown inland, where the summers are hotter and the winters are colder than the coast.
Cal Poly-Pomona scheduled a Coffee Summit for Jan. 18 to discuss coffee growing and marketing in California.