Study: Wine State's top agricultural industry

[Kadie]

Study: Wine State's top agricultural industry

Report finds 38% jump in 4 years to $45.4 billion; Sonoma, Napa in lead
June 23, 2004

By BOB NORBERG
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


SAN FRANCISCO -- The wine industry's impact on the California economy has soared to $45.4 billion, cementing its claim that wine is the state's No. 1 agriculture product, according to a report released Tuesday.


"The increase was 38 percent in four years, which is remarkable," said Vic Motto of MKF Group, a St. Helena wine business consulting group, referring to the 1998-2002 time period of the study. "And that it occurred during a major economic downturn in the United States makes these figures all the more remarkable."


The report, commissioned by the Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers, also found that Sonoma and Napa counties were the leaders in most areas of the wine industry, which beat out dairy for the state's top agricultral spot.

"It shows that the wine industry is a major, major part of the North Bay economy," said Robert Eyler, director of the Sonoma County Center of Economic Analysis, who was a contributor to the report. The wine industry "needs to always be in the front of policy-makers' eyes."

more... http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/news/23wine_e1.html

[mitchtv]

1. God, I miss living in Sonoma Valley

to think, I traded Lynne Woolsey,for Mary Bono. I love when the whole valley smells like a winery, and everyone has black rubber boots. I miss the fields of mustard. I made Cabernet S. Not much of that grown in the Carneros apellation. It is a fantastic climatic region. The confulence sun and cooling fog. I lived near Schelleville. a one time port for the traffic to SF.It id truly a garden spot.