Indiana Grain Company, LLC

Posted: 07/19/10

By: tomgrisafi

U.S. asparagus farmers are a step closer to obtaining federal money to compensate for their losses resulting from the importation of South American asparagus during the 2004-07 crop years.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the implementation of the new Asparagus Revenue Market Loss Assistance Payment Program authorized by the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.

The USDA is accepting comments on proposed rules to administer the program, which will distribute $15 million to asparagus farmers.

For more than a decade, asparagus growers in Washington, California and Michigan have seen their market share decline in the face of unfair competition, particularly from Peru, which exports its fresh asparagus tax-free into the U.S. because of a 1991 trade agreement.

“Like every farm product, asparagus is an important part of our agricultural offering, so producers occasionally need assistance to adjust to sudden domestic price declines brought about by imports of their commodity,” Farm Service Agency Administrator Jonathan Coppess said. “We are eager to have producers and consumers comment to the Farm Service Agency on our proposed Asparagus Revenue Market Loss rules to help us perfect implementation of this program.”