Steady supplies of asparagus continue from Peru

“Peru is year-round with asparagus but typically Peruvian asparagus in the U.S. is from April-May through to December. January-March they back out because of the Mexican deal,” says Gary Meadows of Five Crowns Marketing based in Los Angeles, CA, who notes that overall current supplies are similar to last year at this time.

Volumes (in Kg) | Asparagus supplies from Mexico and Peru in the U.S. Market

 

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

For Five Crowns, a newly opened facility in July has helped the company offer new presentations of asparagus. The 180,000 sq. ft. state of the art warehouse and processing facility in Tracy, CA is where it is doing its bags and trays as well as its corn processing. “Right now we’re doing a 16 oz. bag and a 2.25 kilo bag which is for the big stores. But we’re doing consumer bags that are customer specific,” says Meadows.

Holiday demand coming

Meanwhile on demand, Meadows sees it increasing with promotions in November and into the holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas–holidays that often feature asparagus on menus. “We feel with the economy trying to recover, we’re trying to encourage our customers to promote asparagus,” he says.

Part of that economic recovery could also rely somewhat on sorting out logistics problems, though Meadows notes it’s not likely to improve anytime soon. “The challenges for asparagus are the logistics issues that exist for many items. We try to stagnate some of the supply that comes in to keep supplies steady,” he says.

As for pricing, Meadows notes it’s within a promotable range. “Pricing will be pretty steady through November and we should see some increases in December,” he says.

Price (in USD) of asparagus  in the US Market (11 lb cartons/crates bunched)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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