Photos by Dana Rene Bowler / Star staff Felipe Perez of Calavo Growers uses a stick to reach avocados at Limoneira Ranch on Monday in Santa Paula. The 2007 freeze was blamed for avocados' drop in value, which was about $34 million less than in 2006.

Dana Rene Bowler / Star staff Lilia Tobias, a grader for Calavo Growers Inc., sorts avocados Monday in Santa Paula. Agriculture officials credit the nearly $42 million increase in 2007 crop values to a balance in global supply and demand.

The 2007 winter freeze did not harm Ventura County's overall agricultural industry as much as previously feared, according to the annual crop report released Wednesday.

"Strawberries hung in there," said retiring Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail, releasing the 2007 report on his last day on the job.

Judging by the numbers, McPhail believes Ventura County will maintain its position as the eighth largest agricultural producer in the state and 12th or 13th largest in the nation.

The freeze did take a toll on the county's fruit and nut crops, cut flowers and field crops. But the industry did well enough in other categories to generate an overall gross value of nearly $1.55 billion in 2007, up nearly $42 million from 2006.

"It surprised me that it went up as much as it did," McPhail said. "I figured it would with the supply and demand, but not this much."

Nursery stock helped make up for losses in other areas, increasing in value by $29 million. "There's a huge nursery industry in the county that's built around landscape nursery stock, and they hadn't hit the skids yet with housing prices," said Larry Rose, sales manager of Brokaw Nursery in Saticoy.

When the 2008 crop report is released next year, however, Rose anticipates nursery stock will drop in value because of the housing market's collapse.

Just as they did last year, berries continued to seize the limelight once occupied by citrus. The harvested acreage of raspberries and strawberries kept increasing, while grapefruit, lemons and oranges showed shrinking numbers.

Strawberries remained Ventura County's dominant agricultural commodity, with a value of $366 million, nearly the same as in 2006.

Meanwhile, raspberries surpassed avocados on the top 10 crops list. Avocados were valued at nearly $53 million in 2007, while raspberries fetched $69 million.

Both crops, however, dropped in value from 2006, when raspberries generated $81.2 million and avocados $87 million. McPhail blamed the freeze.

Tomatoes also suffered a value drop of nearly $16 million, but not because of the freeze, which happened several months before local tomatoes were harvested.

"Last year, the market was lackluster all year, so the value of the crop was much less," said Scott Deardorff of Oxnard-based Deardorff Family Farms.

When dealing in fresh produce, you're always at the whim of the market, he said. "It's a risk we take when we put the seed in the ground."

Lemons did surprisingly well last year, considering numerous reports of area growers suffering freeze damage. They increased in value by about $45.6 million from the prior year.

McPhail and others again credited the laws of supply and demand.

"It was a good year," said Alex Teague, a senior vice president for Santa Paula-based citrus producer Limoneira Co. "With the freeze and other weather events around the world, we had demand and supply more in balance than we've historically had, and we had very good returns."