California has finished up a particularly strong asparagus season. "While California isn't a very large volume program, it takes care of a lot of very high-end customers," says James Paul of Greg Paul Produce Sales Inc., which ships product as part of a program with The Giumarra Companies.
This season, California's volume was up and while the state normally starts shipping asparagus in mid-March, production was almost a month early and got underway by mid-February. "We just had a really nice mild winter that warmed up gradually and allowed for an extended season. We never hit a significant heat spell," says Paul, adding that the season finishes with historical timing which is mid to end of May.
Meanwhile, all underway with their localized asparagus programs are Washington and Michigan–both states covering volume for the West Coast–along with New Jersey, Indiana, and Quebec, which has a fair amount of asparagus it's trying to import into the U.S. Peru is also still shipping asparagus while Mexico is supplying some product out of Baja California. "Larger volumes will get started out of Central Mexico sometime in the near future, but currently Mexican supply is one of the lowest in the country," says Paul.
High demand for California asparagus
As for demand, acreage in California is at a level where it leaves demand strong. "Local consumers are very conscientious about the local timeframe and seasonality for California asparagus. Asparagus is just one of the first fresh local offerings that our area gets to really take advantage of," says Paul. He also adds that tariff talks were also hitting a peak during the California season. "That motivated some customers to seek out locally grown product rather than letting dollar value lead their decision-making. It was a really good year for local growers and I hope that continues."
This all left pricing on the stronger side. "We're a bit unique because there is such a small volume that pricing operates on its own and not in direct comparison to the import market from Mexico or Peru for example. It has its own market, a bit of a premium market over the import markets, during the season," says Paul, adding that imports were on the stronger side pricing-wise in recent months.
For more information:
James Paul
Greg Paul Produce Sales, Inc.
Tel: +1 (209) 952-0580
[email protected]
www.gregpaulproduce.com