Dry climate in California ideal for farming agave, meeting demand for spirits

foxbusiness.com:

California Agave Council founding director Craig Reynolds weighs in on tequila shortages and why several California distilleries are turning to agave-based spirits on «Kennedy.»

California faces one of the driest climates in the United States, making it an ideal location for harvesting a number of crops, including the natural agave nectar.

Conventional watering practices don't apply to succulent plants like agave. Therefore, they are particularly drought tolerant, making the Golden State the motherland of plant productivity.

«California seems to be very well-suited in terms of the U.S. as a place for agave to grow,» Craig Reynolds, president of the California Agave Council, told FOX Business. «Winter frost is the most limiting factor for growing agave.»

AGAVE FARMERS WARN OF POTENTIAL TEQUILA SHORTAGE AS DEMAND SOARS AMID SUPPLY CHAIN SHORTAGES

Celebrities are oversaturating the agave spirits market at a rapid pace with their own lines of tequila. (Michael Persico / Teremana Tequila)

Though the constant uncertainty of drought or no-drought weighs on Californians' minds, agave farmers, unlike soybean or wheat agronomists, don't have to fear dry spells as they can capitalize on the lack of rain.

«Come to think of it, I do not know the last time it rained recently,» Kate Radivoyevitch, a San Diego resident, told FOX Business. «I want to say it was a month ago.»

Radivoyevitch moved from Ohio to California at the end of 2022, just as tremendous rain was emerging across the Bear State, freeing half of California from drought.

«When I first moved here, we got so much rain and everyone was shocked,» she said. «I was told how badly the state needed it.»

The truest drawback to harvesting the blue-green plant is that it takes