Economic Contributions

Salad Bowl of the World

Monterey County Agriculture pumps $11.7 billion into the local economy and supports more than 80,00 local jobs, Agricultural Commissioner Juan Hidalgo announced as he released an updated report of a comprehensive economic analysis of the county’s leading industry on November 18, 2025.

This report is the fourth update in the series on the economic contributions of Agricutlure to Monterey County’s overall economy.

Note this report is based on information collected in 2023 and 2024.

This report takes an important step …

beyond the Crop Report the Ag Commissioner publishes each year. Instead of stopping at crop production values and acreage, it quantifies agriculture’s total economic contributions through production, local processing, employment, and economic multiplier effects. In short, this report uses twenty-first-century economic tools to document agriculture’s broader role in sustaining a thriving local economy.

The report shows …

that in 2023, agriculture contributed a total of $11.7 billion to the county economy. This far exceeded the $4.35 billion figure from our 2023 Crop Report. Note that 2023 showed a decline in production values due to extensive flooding in January and March of that year … thus, the economic multipliers reflected those production values. Crop values in 2024 rebounded by 14.7% to a total of $4.99 billion.

In addition …

the report documents exceptional diversification within agriculture, which has implications for countywide economic resiliency. Economic diversification is like an ‘insurance policy” against ecnomic risks; local Agriculturel provides that diversity to ensure a stable economy year-over-year. An overview of Value-Added food processing is also included as this is now a big portion of our annual crop production.

Highlights of the Report include:

With $4.99 billion in direct economic output (2024), agriculture was the county’s largest economic sector at 16.3% of total economic output. An additional $4.5 billion is contributed by processing facilties (value-added products).
Agriculture was directly responsible for 81,00 jobs — about one job in every five in Monterey County.
Jobs directly related to crop production total 56,000.

Agritultural diversity provides critical economic stability, both within the Ag sector and to the wider county economy.
With investments in new technologies, future economic prosperity and sustainability will ensure success of the agricultural sector as it competes on the world market.
Monterey County Agricutlure pumps $1.33 million into the local economy each hour of every day.