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Asparagus demand worries growers

An asparagus grower is concerned about starting the season with reduced consumer demand.

Fourth-generation farmer Nick Oomen tells Brownfield harvest has been underway for about a week, but sales have been slow.

“We’ve got retailers that are ordering less than what they have on like a three-year average,” he shares. “We’ve got retailers that typically would order twice a week and they’re ordering once. They’re telling us, well, demand is just slow in the store.”

Oomen says the reduced demand comes on top of extremely high labor costs mandated by the H-2A guest worker program.

“When the metrics tell us that we’re not making any money and we need to walk away, that’s what we intend to do,” he says. “So for now, we’re just kind of riding out the last of what we have, hoping that maybe we see some improvement or Congress can get something passed. But if that’s not going to happen then we’re going to be done with asparagus.”

He says the cool, wet start to harvest usually produces a higher quality crop and extends picking into June which can mean better yields.

Michigan is the nation’s largest asparagus-producing state in the U.S.