With just a few weeks of harvest left this season, asparagus growers are enjoying good prices..The season, which is slated to wrap up around the 25th of June, has brought light volumes, according to Alan Schreiber, executive director of the Washington Asparagus Commission. He said cool weather is most likely the reason for less-than-expected production.
“We had cool weather early and the season never really got going, so production has been a little light,” he said. He noted that growers would have liked more volume, but with less asparagus on the market, prices have gone up. Those prices have, in turn, incited optimism among the state's growers.
“One indicator about the future has been the number of nurseries,” he said. “We've had more nurseries planted than we've had in over a decade. That shows growers are confident about the future.”
Another fortunate consequence of cool weather has been good quality. Produce spared from late-season heat has fared well.
A large concern this year has been the labor shortage many growers experienced. As much as 10 percent of the state's acreage was plowed out because there weren't enough people to harvest the crop. That's something that will need to be addressed going forward, according to Schreiber.
“The labor pool has shrunk,” he said. “So we need to come up with a solution for a workable labor program.”