Michigan Growers Please With Asparagus Demand

LANSING - Mar 18/04 - MFB -- Michigan asparagus growers have more than one reason to grin lately.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans to purchase up to 6.9 million pounds of canned and frozen asparagus for child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs. Just days earlier, the Asparagus Division of the Michigan Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Association (MACMA) signed contracts with Michigan processors that will pay growers 62 cents per pound - up 2 cents from last year. MACMA is the marketing arm of the Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB).

"The timeliness of the USDA purchase announcement is very much appreciated by the asparagus industry," said Ken Nye, MFB horticultural specialist and MACMA Asparagus Division director. "Without the USDA stepping forward to make this purchase, we would not utilize the entire crop, nor would we be able to negotiate reasonable prices for growers."

Asparagus processors will have to bid on fulfilling the new USDA order, but Nye expects the contracts to go to processors in Michigan and Washington - the leading states for processed asparagus production.

This is the fourth consecutive year that USDA has purchased canned and frozen asparagus. The department purchased a total of 5.6 million pounds, worth $6.1 million, in fiscal year 2003, 6.1 million pounds in 2002 and 1.75 million pounds in 2001.

MFB and MACMA members had lobbied aggressively for the federal purchases to help offset a flood of cheap, foreign asparagus imports caused by the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). Adopted in 1991, ATPA gives farmers in Peru, Columbia, Bolivia and Ecuador unlimited duty-free entry to U.S. markets as a means to help reduce Andean dependency on the production and illegal trafficking of drugs.

The U.S. asparagus industry had lobbied for the act's scheduled expiration in 2001, arguing that the preferential treatment had done little to entice farmers in drug-producing areas to stop raising high-value coca and instead had increased Andean asparagus production and exports to the United States. Despite the opposition, the act was extended for another 10 years.

At the March 11 annual meeting of MACMA's Asparagus Division, representatives from three western Michigan asparagus processors signed contracts to pay the agreed-upon 2004 price of 62 cents per pound. Signing contracts were Coloma Frozen Foods in Coloma, Peterson Farms in Shelby, and Chase Farms in Walkerville. Since that meeting, Birds Eye Foods in Fennville, Pro-Fac Cooperative in Rochester, N.Y., and New Era Canning in New Era have also inked agreements with MACMA.

The 2004 contracts follow a successful 2003 crop and help set an optimistic tone for the year ahead.

"Production was significantly higher than forecast and prices were better than anticipated," said Nye. "Looking ahead, we look forward to duplicating the success we achieved in 2003 and to restoring a measure of stability and profitability to the industry."

Copyright (c) 2004 Michigan Farm Bureau

The subscriber version of the article is available by Clicking here