Uvalde, Texas
October 16, 2008
Like Popeye after eating a can of
the leafy greens, Texas spinach producers are “pumped up” about
the future of their industry due to its track record of product
safety and increasing consumer demand for high-quality greens,
experts said.
“While overall spinach production is down, we’re still
encouraged about our industry as a whole,” said Ed Ritchie,
president of the Winter Garden Spinach Producers Board. “There’s
strong consumer demand for our product. We also feel that with
the way the economy is now, fewer people will be eating out and
more will be eating at home. That should increase sales.”
Ritchie, himself a spinach producer and shipper in the Winter
Garden area, which includes several southwestern Texas counties,
said fresh and processed spinach planting statewide is down
about 20 percent from 2006.
“Part of that reduction in acreage was a result of the E. coli
scare a few years ago,” he said. “And part is due to farmers
choosing to grow alternative row crops, especially grain crops,
because right now these crops are getting higher revenues.”
Ritchie said about 3,200 acres in Texas are now devoted to
spinach production, with two-thirds of that acreage being used
to produce processed spinach for canning and freezing. However,
he added, a number of Winter Garden farmers, himself included,
have had success producing small-leaf fresh spinach for the
health-conscious consumer.
The Winter Garden area currently produces about 90 percent of
Texas-grown spinach. Planting is already under way, and
harvesting of the upcoming crop should begin around the second
week in November.
“California currently dominates U.S. spinach production and
produced about 78 percent of the nation’s 831 million pounds of
spinach in 2007,” said Jose Pena,
Texas AgriLife
Extension Service economist at the Texas AgriLife Research
and Extension Center in Uvalde.
Pena said Texas ranks third in the nation for fresh-market
spinach production and second in production of processed
spinach.
“After a slight decline in 2005 and 2006, the demand for fresh
vegetables is increasing again,” he said. “Demand is especially
high for attractive, high-quality greens with good taste and
high nutritional value. And Texas spinach certainly meets those
criteria.”
Pena said while processed spinach consumption increased in 2007
after the E. coli scare, the majority of the U.S. per capita
increase in consumption for the past two years has been of fresh
spinach.
“The industry has done a good job of making the public aware of
the nutritional and health benefits of spinach, including its
antioxidants and cancer preventing qualities,” he said. “But
there are still lingering consumer concerns about product
safety.”
While there has never been an instance of E. coli associated
with spinach produced in Texas, the general consumer concern
with product safety affected everyone in the industry, said Dr.
Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist at the Uvalde
center.
“Texas spinach producers apply best agricultural practices in
the planting, harvesting and handling of their product to
greatly reduce any possibility of contamination,” Stein said.
Ritchie said every Texas spinach producer knows of has either
U.S. Department of Agriculture or industry-set PRIMUS
certification for product safety guidelines.
"We’re also starting to label our spinach with a country of
origin designation which includes the city and state so people
can know the specific area it came from,” he said. “This will
help keep the consumer more informed about the product they’re
eating.”
Texas producers are also investigating the use of irradiation to
ensure an even safer product, Stein said.
“Now that the USDA has approved irradiation of spinach,
consumers will realize this is a safe and effective means of
killing the bacteria that may cause E. coli,” he said. “And
adopting it will add another level of safety to an already
extremely safe product. We’re working with area producers to
address any logistical or perceptual issues they may have about
this.”
Stein added the Texas spinach industry also is being indirectly
helped by increasing transportation costs.
“The cost of transporting spinach from California has gone up
significantly in the past few years and that has made Texas
spinach more competitive in many parts of the U.S.,” Stein said.
“We’re also looking into more area spinach producers bagging
their own spinach and shipping it out from here,” Stein said.
“Currently a lot of the product is shipped east for packaging.
Bagging it themselves will save on costs and also enable
producers to have even more control over their product.”
Stein said the current status and future of the Texas, U.S, and
international spinach industries will be the focus of much
discussion during an upcoming conference from Nov. 30 through
Dec. 2 in San Antonio.
“We’ll be having our fourth annual International Spinach
Conference,” said Stein, who is coordinating the conference.
“This year we will have growers, shippers and industry leaders
from Texas and at least seven other U.S. states, as well as from
Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. It will be a great
opportunity for people to share knowledge that can help advance
and improve the spinach industry worldwide.”
“The Texas spinach industry is looking good,” said Ritchie.
“We’ve got a high-quality, safe product that consumers want, and
producers are continuing to do all they can to make it an even
better and safer product.” |
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