UPDATE 1-California fires damage avocado trees

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By Bob Burgdorfer

CHICAGO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The deadly brush fires raging in Southern California have destroyed thousands of acres of avocado trees and it will take years for the area's crop to recover, said state and county agriculture officials.

"We know we've lost thousands of acres of avocados. That will be one of the big losses," Jay Van Rein, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said of the avocados in a telephone interview with Reuters.

In addition to avocados, other agriculture in the fire areas includes citrus groves, egg farms, and plant nurseries.

More than 500,000 people have been evacuated from the fire areas, most of them in the San Diego area, the largest number in California history. Seven Southern California counties have been declared major disaster areas.

There are 18 active fires from Los Angeles County to the Mexican border, which have burned 426,000 acres, or 666 square miles. Six deaths and about 40 injuries have been attributed to the blazes.

California is the top avocado producer with about 84 percent of the nation's production and San Diego County has a third to half of the state's 60,000 avocado acres.

Dawn Nielsen, deputy agriculture commissioner for San Diego County, told Reuters nearly 5,000 acres of avocado trees have been damaged.

"The bigger loss is the tree itself, not the fruit. These are not row crops, where you can just plant them again and have a harvest in four months," said Van Rein. "The trees have to be grown again from seed and it is going to be several years before they are productive again."

Many of the trees have avocados on them because the fruit will stay ripe for months, he said.

Despite the expected losses, Van Rein said there should be enough avocado production elsewhere in the world to prevent a noticeable change in prices for consumers.

"We know of at least one that had a couple of (chicken) houses that burned," Dawn Nielsen, deputy agriculture commissioner for San Diego County, said of the egg farms.

The majority of the state's poultry and egg production is farther north and away from the fire.

"The areas that the fires are getting into today are some of our primary citrus growing areas. We grow Valencia and navels (oranges)," said Nielsen.

In addition to oranges, family farms in the region produce lemons, limes, grapefruit, tangerines and tangelos, said Van Rein.  Continued...