Limoneira completes $1.7M water pumping rights transactions
Santa Paula-based lemon grower Limoneira announced Jan. 23 the successful completion of three water pumping rights transactions in the Santa Paula Basin totaling $1.7 million.
The sales, which valued the water pumping rights at $30,000 per acre-foot, underscore the increasing value of water resources in the region and validate the company’s long-term strategy of optimizing water asset management, the company said.
“We are pleased to facilitate the sale of these water pumping rights to help the requirements of local buyers needing additional water,” Harold Edwards, president and CEO of Limoneira, said in a press release.
“We are also pleased to create transactions that demonstrate the significant value these Santa Paula Basin water pumping rights have to our stockholders,” he said.
The company described the transaction as a “strategic monetarization” from its portfolio of 9.000 acre-feet of water in the Santa Paula Basin, accumulated over more than a century. Based on an average value of $30,000 per acre-feet, the value of the entire portfolio would be $270 million.
Founded in 1893, Limoneira retains about 21,000-acre feet of water rights, usage rights and pumping rights in the Santa Paula and Fillmore Basins, the Paso Robles Basin, and Class 3 Colorado River water rights.
The rights represent a strategic asset that may be opportunistically monetized for shareholder benefit while maintaining the company’s core agricultural and development operations, Edwards said.
Limoneira will continue to pursue industry-leading irrigation and farm management practices in support of conserving water to satisfy regional demands while meeting its own requirements, he said.
“Limoneira’s commitment to stewardship and sustainability have allowed us to create conserved water that we can monetize without compromising our present and future demands,” Edwards said.
“We believe that over time these water pumping rights will continue to become more valuable and that opportunities to monetize additional conserved water will present themselves,” he said.
