By KAREN BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Thanks to local and organic produce trends, specialty crop producers should find themselves growing their market sales this season.

This is the bottom line from Tim Woods, an ag economist at the University of Kentucky, who shared his insights earlier this month at the Illinois Specialty Growers Conference in Springfield.

“Here’s the big picture: We will undoubtedly see continued expansion in the farm produce sectors across all marketing channels,” Woods said. “I don’t see trend slowing down.”

Farm produce sold nationwide in 2008 totaled $20.6 billion, up from roughly $15 billion in 1999.  This figure alone demonstrates the public’s growing appetite for not only vegetables and melons, but also locally-grown and organic produce. Organic produce has enjoyed 20 percent growth every year since 2005, when national sales totaled $14 billion. In 2008, organic sales hit $21 billion.
Woods carefully explained that within those organic produce sales are locally-grown organics, accounting for 42 percent of the $21 billion sales total.

“And one-third of organics are sold under contract. Organic produce is really becoming a mainstream product,” he said, adding that larger producers in California, Texas and Washington are the ones who tend to feed the market growth.

“There’s no reason for this trend not to happen here,” he explained – if local growers use existing marketing channels such as direct marketing, farmers’ markets, on-farm markets, cooperatives, wholesale non-cooperatives, direct to grocery, direct to restaurant, auction and community-supported agriculture, most commonly known in urban areas as CSAs.

Most notable of these channels are the direct sales to grocery, restaurant and CSAs, which all witnessed sales increases two times over a five-year period. Plummeting four times in sales were cooperative sales.

With this kind of economic stage set for the conference, the nearly 400 people attending the show followed one of six program tracks selected by organizers as current and important, said Rick Weinzierl, pest management specialist from University of Illinois extension.

The Illinois Specialty Growers Assoc. is an umbrella organization for the Illinois Herb Assoc., Illinois Irrigation Assoc., Illinois State Horticulture Society and the Illinois Vegetable Growers Assoc. Emphasis was on marketing and agritourism, vegetables, fruit production, herbs, organic production and irrigation.

“Vegetable production is not what it used to be. We’ve seen such diversification in the marketplace and technology alone. That’s what this conference is all about, sharing this new knowledge,” Weinzierl said.

Unlike row crop farming, specialty crops are more hands-on. In fact, Jeff Kindhart, a UoI extension vegetable production expert, suggested to beginning vegetable growers that they “hold on to that hoe” before using large equipment which can quickly squash any prospects for a future harvest, if not used properly.

“There’s no combine, so a lot of your success depends on access to skilled labor or you will need to rely on mechanization,” Kindhart said, urging caution when selecting equipment. “There’s a big difference between a $500 and a $5,000 tiller, when it comes to durability and performance.”

Likewise, the kind of mulch used with tomatoes, strawberries or peppers equally varies by cost and performance. Although many assumed black plastic mulch would block needed sunlight to the plants and clear plastic would be preferred, Kindhart said the black mulch has bigger advantages because it better controls weed growth, while the plastic nature of the mulch helps retain moisture and promote earlier and higher yields. The clear plastic is warmer and makes weeds grow “like crazy,” he said.

Use of the mulch is a technology Kindhart said “can get your foot in the door first at a lot of markets. Customers tend to stick with the producer who has product first, and that’s why you want to get your produce to market first.”

Go to www.specialtygrowers.org for more information.