Riverside County's farm identity is citrus — its farm economy is now nursery stock

Riverside County still tells its story through citrus. The first Washington Navel orange tree was planted in the city in 1873, and the groves remain the image the county leads with. But the money has moved.

Nursery stock — ornamental plants, cut flowers, turf, and greenhouse production — was the county's leading agricultural commodity in 2024 at more than $458 million, inside a total farm economy of $1.76 billion, according to the county agricultural commissioner. That is up sharply from $358 million the year before.

The trend behind that number runs back years. County production data shows nursery stock climbing from roughly $205 million in 2019 to $358 million in 2023 — a 75% gain over five years, rising every year. Citrus grew too, from about $122 million to $149 million across the same span, but at less than half the pace. By 2023, citrus ranked behind tree-and-vine crops, vegetables, and nursery in total value.

The land tells the same story. The county's total planted acreage fell from roughly 209,000 acres in 2019 to 179,000 in 2023 — about 30,000 fewer acres in production, driven mostly by retreating field crops. Nursery acreage moved the other way, rising over the same period. It is the category adding ground while the county's overall farmland shrinks.

The economics explain why. Nursery stock is a high-value-per-acre business — greenhouse and ornamental production generating far more revenue on far less land than a citrus grove. As water costs rise and irrigated acreage faces pressure, value density matters more, and nursery operators capture more of it per acre than tree crops can.

For operators, the read is about where the county's agricultural land, water, and labor are actually heading. The citrus grove is the county's heritage and a real business still. But the growth, the acreage gains, and the top of the value table now belong to a different kind of farming — one built on greenhouses and ornamental production rather than the groves the region is named for.

The most recent full commodity breakdown available runs through 2023; the county has reported 2024 top-line figures but not yet the complete crop-by-crop detail. The direction across the series is consistent, and 2024's nursery total extends it.