Oregon Public Broadcasting

Some of the first asparagus of the season will be picked Friday in south-central Washington.

This may be the first year since 2001 that asparagus acreage is up in the Northwest.  New vegetable processors and relatively good crop prices are credited with the turnaround. Correspondent Anna King reports.

Washington asparagus farmers are planting again. The state Asparagus Commission is thrilled to report that 500 new acres have gone in since last spring.

Several years ago, the industry was all but decimated after the three biggest processors started buying their asparagus from lower-cost Peru. But a new fresh packer called Gourmet, and other small processors have revived the industry.

Phil Clouse is a grower representative with Gourmet. He says the price of asparagus is more profitable at the moment than other crops like corn, wheat and potatoes.

Phil Clouse: “Some of the other commodity products that the grower has an opportunity to raise just doesn’t have the potential that it did last year. So it’s putting a better shine on asparagus.”

Clouse says farmers would have planted more if they had more seed available.