By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

HART, Mich. — Carrot growers around Michigan are deciding on whether to continue their marketing program.

Ben Kudwa, executive director of the Carrot Development Committee, wouldn’t say much on the marketing program since he said it would be a conflict of interest, but he did say some things about the carrot industry in Michigan and elsewhere.

“It’s a small industry, about $17 million in farm-gate value, but there’s a lot of potential for growth,” Kudwa said. “The carrot industry is quite integrated and quite progressive.”

According to Kudwa, nationally the carrot industry is concentrated in the area around Bakersfield, Calif. Most U.S. carrots are grown there. Kudwa said that it’s pretty remarkable that the carrot industry can survive at all in Michigan, given the number of large-scale growers in the West.

There are about 20 carrot growers in Michigan; they grow carrots on about 4,000 acres altogether.

One of these is Rick Oomen of Oomen Farms in Hart, Mich. He grows “dicer carrots” on about 600 acres and said that he’s planning to expand his carrot-growing operation by about 25 percent, in order to accommodate “the next generation” of his family.

He also has a processing operation, in partnership with several other farms in the area. It’s called Freeze-Pac. Dicer carrots are larger than other kinds, Oomen said.

Oomen said he doesn’t really compete with carrot growers in California because they grow different kinds of carrots.
“The biggest thing that’s hurt us in the carrot industry is the ban on baiting,” Oomen said of the prohibition on deer baiting, which went into effect late last summer. “It hurt us, and it hurt a lot of others in the area.”

Oomen didn’t say how he voted regarding the carrot marketing program and he said he doesn’t have any really strong feelings about it. Carrot growers had until June 26 to send in a completed and signed ballot to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA). All eligible growers received a ballot in the mail.

Growers were eligible to vote on the marketing program if they produced and sold carrots for human consumption valued at more than $1,000 in any of the last three years. By law the program must be submitted for growers’ approval every five years.
Right now the assessment on growers is 1.5 cents per master of fresh carrots and 30 cents per ton of processing carrots. In order to continue, the program must be approved by more than 50 percent of the growers’ votes cast.

Any eligible grower who didn’t receive a ballot can call the MDA at 1-800-292-3939.