STOCKTON —

Growers in one of the key asparagus growing regions are seeing tough competition from Mexican growers just as their harvest season is beginning.  Shoppers are seeing store specials on asparagus, but much of the product comes from Mexico.

The asparagus season usually starts in late November in Mexico, but their season has been extended just as warm weather in California is causing shoots to sprout.

“The warm weather down there has spurred their growth. So they’re producing at their max right now,” said Delta grower and California Asparagus Commission Chair Marc Marchini.

His workers were finishing up the first harvest on a field on Friday. The plants are productive up to 15 years. Normally asparagus grows 4-5 inches a day meaning a field can be harvested every two days for 8-10 weeks.

But Marchini says he’ll plow over the field hoping to slow production by a week or two.  He’s hoping market prices will go up by then.

“We don’t normally like to do that because everything that you can’t harvest now you can’t make up at the end,” said Marchini.

Labor costs also makes it hard to compete with Mexican asparagus.  Marchini pays his crew top dollar because the flow of undocumented workers has slowed and farm hands are in demand.  He says he knows growers who have a good crop but won’t harvest this season because they can’t find workers.

The advantage for local growers is that their product is fresher than Mexican asparagus which have to be shipped.

“We’re fresher because it takes them a while…they probably put it in their cold boxes for a while before they even bring it up here, and once it’s here they put in cold storage until it can be distributed,” said Marchini.

He hopes shoppers will look at the labels on asparagus which indicates where it was grown.  He says local growers are slowly making progress selling to local Safeways and Costcos.  He expects the retail cost of asparagus to rise during the Easter season in April.  He added that they need the higher prices to make a profit and survive.