Agronometrics in Charts: Plummeting asparagus volumes from Peru boost prices

This week we’re going to take a look at the unusual dynamics in the U.S. asparagus market over the last few weeks amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

While prices in the U.S. market are currently declining, they have been substantially higher than previous years over the last few weeks. In week 19, the average was US$5.36 per kilo, which is 22% up on last year.

The high prices – coming on the back of very low prices – are likely related to a sharp drop in available supplies.

Asparagus volumes

In line with the high prices are the lowest of the last few years, coming mainly due to a drop in volumes coming from Peru.

As can be seen in the chart below, volumes from Peru have been well below previous years. In April this year, only 331,128 kilos of Peruvian asparagus arrived in the market, far below the 4.8m kilos in the same period last year.

The cause of this decline, according to Peru’s exporters’ association ADEX, was the situation with Covid-19. The organization said that asparagus exports fell by 16.6% in the first quarter of the year.

Written by: Cristian Crespo
Original published in FreshFruitPortal.com on May 26, 2020 (Link)