<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;line-height:130%"> San Joaquin Valley</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">3.27.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>San Joaquin County farmers are being faced with a drop in prices as a bountiful crop and continuing competition from Mexican imports flood the market, according to Recordnet.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Ed Zuckerman, chief executive of Zuckerman Family Farms, said early season prices had been fairly strong, running about $45 per 28-pound carton.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In the past few days; however, prices have headed south of the roughly $35 per carton needed to cover production and packing costs.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The U.S. Agricultural Marketing Service's website reported Mexican asparagus at border crossings in California and Arizona generally sold Monday for about $29 to $33 a carton, with most about $31.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">As California asparagus generally fetches a higher price, it's hard to compete against such low-priced imports.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"This week and next, I expect it to be pretty tough," Zuckerman said Tuesday. "Where next week's prices are going to end up, I don't know."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Cherie Watte Angulo, executive director of the California Asparagus Commission, said asparagus growers in the state - mostly found in and around the San Joaquin Delta - have sharply cut back production over the past 10 to 15 years, trying to find a secure market even as imports from Mexican growers rise.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We've kind of bottomed out and found a place where our supply matches our demand," she said Tuesday.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"This season, it looks like we're right on track to produce about the same amount we did last year - 36 million pounds on 11,000 to 12,000 acres statewide."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">San Joaquin County reports show in 2000 it alone produced more than 63 million pounds of asparagus from 23,600 acres harvested. By 2011, according to the latest available report, county plantings had fallen to 6,400 acres.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Watte Angulo said consumers should demand California, rather than imported, asparagus.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"The lesson to your readers is, if you do not see fresh California asparagus in your marketplace, ask for it," she said.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Marc Marchini, a Stockton asparagus farmer and the commission's chairman, said that sort of consumer demand would be a boon. And he promised that the California product is certainly fresher and of higher quality than the imports.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">But if area farmers can continue to produce the vegetable through the spring, until it gets too warm in Mexico, prices should turn back in their favor.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"I'm just keeping my fingers crossed," he said. "We should have a pretty good season through the month of April, and hopefully we can hang onto it through the month of May.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We're hanging in there for dear life, and we're going to stay in the business for as long as we can."</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130327/A_BIZ/303270309&cid=sitesearch" target="_new">Asparagus Update </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
