Editorial
The war on drugs vs. asparagus

THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES Factory workers in Peru sort and can asparagus. Del Monte contracts with the Peruvian company to produce its canned asparagus.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Seneca Food's announcement it will close its Columbia County asparagus canning plant, the last in the state, is a blow to the industry and the rural area.

State and federal officials should carefully weigh their options to see if anything can be done to help this century-old industry, which seems to be a casualty of the United States' war on drugs, and to keep the rest of the state's food processing industry vital.

The Andean Trade Preferences Act was intended to discourage cocaine production by luring growers out of coca leaf cultivation. A federal report concluded the trade act has served not to curb cocaine production at all but to help Peru's asparagus industry flourish at the expense of the U.S. industry. Peruvian growers can export their asparagus tariff-free into the United States, but U.S. asparagus going the other way must pay.

General Mills, which contracted for Green Giant-label asparagus with Seneca, is expected to move its line to Peru, following the path of Del Monte, which closed its Toppenish line last year.

Among the options members of Congress are considering is an attempt to exempt asparagus from the trade act now that Peruvian asparagus growers have demonstrated they can compete vigorously. Another possibility is filing a trade case with the International Trade Commission.

Seneca has been hinting at this decision for a couple of years, noting the challenges of the trade act exacerbated by the state's minimum wage, the highest in the nation. The Legislature has spurned attempts to change the wage law, but did approve a $2 million grant to assist Seneca in further automating its line — money that will now go unspent. Another grant will help fresh-packers automate, while another will go to mechanizing harvest.

Agriculture Director Valoria Loveland fears the canneries' departure could be just the start. Already, there's talk of providing tax credits for remaining food-processing plants to keep that from happening.

Food processing is a mainstay of many of Washington's rural communities, adding value to the raw product grown in the fields and providing jobs. These plants and their relatively low-paying jobs don't have the cachet of a Boeing or a Microsoft, but for many small towns, they are critical.

Federal officials must remedy a U.S. policy that is debilitating the domestic asparagus industry.