In The News

Congressman Bill Huizenga drew praise from the asparagus industry after he asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase an increased amount of Michigan-grown asparagus.

Huizenga, R-Zeeland, who represents the Second district which includes Oceana and a part of Mason County, sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to request the USDA purchase an additional 3.5 million pounds of asparagus because of COVID-19 on top of the 3.5 million pounds already requested.

“When you consider that the asparagus industry is already facing questionable foreign trade practices, labor barriers and historically low prices, along with the negative impact of Covid-19, it is critical the USDA announce a bonus purchase before the harvest begins in early May,” writes Huizenga. “By purchasing additional asparagus prior to the start of the harvest season, the USDA would be providing critical relief to the industry. Michigan-grown asparagus would also be a valuable nutritional addition to food banks, schools and senior meal programs in this time of need.”

“This is tremendous,” said John Bakker, executive director at Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board. “We appreciate all of the efforts of Congressmen Huizenga and all the others for the support of our industry, they realize just how badly our industry needs this purchase.”

Bakker said the industry leaders originally drafted a letter to the USDA asking for a Section 32, a bonus buy of 3.5 million pounds of frozen cut-and-tips asparagus, but when COVID-19 pandemic hit, growers and farmers could not imagine the devastating impact it would have on the market.

Michigan typically puts 60 percent of the asparagus crop into the fresh market and 40 percent into the processed market, according to Bakker.

“In 2019 we learned at the beginning of our season our processors had lost a substantial about of business to offshore customers,” Bakker said. “As a result our processing dropped from 10 million pounds to around seven million pounds and we had to force three million pounds of additional product on to the fresh market, which severely depressed prices, basically last year was a chaotic season.

“We drafted a letter explaining the situation, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit it has caused extremely low prices, the prices as so low we as an industry probably wouldn’t be able to cover the harvest cost,” he said. “We knew fresh would not be a good option this year so we are really depending on the processing market for our crop.”

Bakker noted processed asparagus can be done in a plant, in a setting where workers could be spaced apart. That, along with other variables, would give the industry a better chance of getting a USDA Section 32 bonus buy of seven million pounds of frozen cut-and-tips asparagus.

“In all likelihood, without a purchase, we are going to leave millions of pounds of asparagus in the fields,” Bakker said. “It made so much more sense to do this instead of a disaster program for the farmers after the fact. It made more sense to use tax dollars to purchase our crops now.”

It will take a couple of weeks for the bids to go out to the processors just in time for the beginning of harvest expected to be the first week of May.

This article originally appeared in the Ludington Daily News on April 18th, 2020.