07/20/05 Asparagus industry future?

Asparagus harvest came and went last month in the Northwest, much of that in the mid-Columbia region of Washington and Oregon. BOUCHEY: In 2005, there is approximately 12,000 acres of asparagus in Washington State both for canned and processing for total acres. But Kevin Bouchey, a board member of the Washington Asparagus Commission and grower, says the real story is that more and more Northwest growers are losing options to sell their products in the processing market. Del Monte closed its Washington State plant two years ago. Then came an announcement from the Dayton Washington based Seneca-Green Giant plant earlier this year. BOUCHEY: Even though it's a little inferior product coming out of Peru versus what is canned here in the Northwest. Green Giant felt that they needed to go down to Peru to compete on a cost per unit basis. And so that led to where they did for the 2005 production, packed about seventy-five per cent of what they had in previous years, and ultimately at the conclusion of the 2005 season, completely ceased operations here in Washington State. Peru has gained a significant advantage in our nation's asparagus market through the fourteen year old Andean Trade Preference Act, which exempted ag import tariffs on asparagus, and the growing minimum wage rates in Washington and Oregon in a field that is very labor intensive. Bouchey says what that all means is that growers will be scrambling in 2006 to find new markets. Or the other alternative is considering the remainder of 2005 if they should plow out their asparagus fields. BOUCHEY: You can consider it very much an adjustment year if you are displaced Seneca  Green Giant grower, you are looking for a home for your asparagus. The challenge is that the fresh consumption & that market, while it's growing single digits a year & we've got a much larger availability of raw product in the 2006 season. And that pie is only so big to be shared among the industry. And adding additional asparagus is going to put additional pressure on that market. According to Bouchey, of the 12,000 acres of asparagus in Washington State, he unofficially estimates that 2,000 of those acres have already been plowed out by Seneca-Green Giant. That would put total acreage of asparagus in Washington, as one grower put it, at "a many, many decade low point".