Last asparagus cannery in Columbia Basin to close

YAKIMA — Washington’s last big asparagus canning plant will close next year, potentially eliminating thousands of seasonal jobs in the Columbia Basin and Yakima Valley.

“This is definitely a major, major blow to the industry,” said Kevin Bouchey, an asparagus grower southwest of Toppenish and chairman of the Washington Asparagus Commission.

The decision to close the Seneca Foods Corp. plant in Dayton, about 120 miles south of Spokane, in 2005 came from food industry conglomerate General Mills, Inc., for which Seneca is a contract manufacturer.

“We knew that General Mills had been down to Peru and had been getting bids” from canneries there, said Alan Schreiber, Asparagus Commission executive director. Peruvian asparagus imports to the United States are duty-free because of a 13-year-old federal program designed to encourage farmers to grow legal crops rather than producing narcotics.

In a statement issued Friday, the Association of Washington Business said the federal program encouraging Peruvian Asparagus imports isn’t working.

“Instead of switching from coca to asparagus, Peruvians are now growing both crops,” said Don C. Brunell, president of the association. “According to the General Accounting Office, this 1991 act has not stemmed coca production, but has put asparagus growers in Washington, California and Michigan at risk.”

General Mills spokeswoman Marybeth Thorsgaard would not confirm whether the company plans to get its asparagus from Peru, citing competitive reasons.

The Seneca plant is the third and final Washington asparagus cannery to announce its closure during the past year. Last July, the Del Monte plant in Toppenish announced an end to asparagus processing, as did the Seneca plant in Walla Walla. The Walla Walla and Toppenish shutdowns eliminated the market for about 6.5 million pounds of Washington asparagus.

The closure in Dayton will cut jobs for as many as 1,000 workers who process 28 million pounds of asparagus for about 70 days each spring. The Seneca plant has been in Dayton since 1934 and is the largest private employer in southeast Washington.