12 CapitalPress.com
March 10, 2017
Grower ‘spills the beans’ about foreign competition
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — By the
time Ron Oneto was 4 years
old he was sure he wanted to
stay on the farm.
“I was born and raised
in Stockton,” he said. “My
grandparents lived in the or-
chard. When I’d hear my uncle
coming into their yard with a
tractor, I would go running
towards him. He’d stop, I’d
climb on, and he’d let me fin-
ish driving the tractor into the
yard.”
Today, Oneto and his broth-
er farm 2,200 acres of dry
beans, cherries, walnuts, wine
grapes, processing and fresh
market tomatoes, silage and
grain corn and wheat.
He is also chairman of the
California Dry Bean Advisory
Board.
“Our varieties we grow
are Green Baby Lima, Yellow
beans, White, Light, and Dark
Kidneys,” he said. “Our total
acres remains around 500. Each
year there are different acres of
each, depending on field sizes.”
Oneto said about 44,000
acres are planted to beans each
year in California.
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According
to Nathan Sano,
manager of the
California Bean
Advisory Board,
lygus and thrips
are the two worst
pests for beans Ron Oneto
in California.
“Thrips are a small insect
that usually attacks young
plants, stunting their growth,”
he said. “Lygus are more
known for their feeding on the
bean seed preventing growth or
puncture damage to the seed,
making the bean unmarket-
able.”
In spite of the pests, beans
are a relatively easy crop to
grow, as long as it’s dry during
harvest time. Wet beans are
hard to dry, and they can be
damaged if are harvested while
moist.
Oneto said the biggest chal-
lenge facing California bean
growers is the Japanese mar-
ket.
“They (Japan) account for
about 70 percent of the Baby
Lima market,” he said. “They
have been sourcing Baby Li-
mas from Myanmar at a cheap-
er price point. The California
industry is working quite hard
at trying to keep market share
in Japan.”
There is also a lot of com-
petition from foreign imports,
he said.
Beans can be stored for a
long time, too, which allows
brokers and handlers to choose
where they buy beans.
Beyond Japan, trade in gen-
eral remains a challenge, he
said.
“Trade is a big topic cur-
rently, especially since the
November election,” Oneto
said. “President Trump has said
he wants to relook at all trade
agreements and I agree. When
you hear about how these
agreements are put together,
U.S. agriculture gets the short
end.”
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