There’s Gold In Them Thar Spears!

Most agricultural prices have plummeted during the pandemic, but the price of asparagus is the exception—it’s gone up. That’s good for local growers because the majority of the asparagus competing in the U.S. is grown in Mexico and Peru, and the pandemic has seriously disrupted those markets.

This leaves American farmers as the country’s main provider of the vegetable, and farmers who had not negotiated a price for their crop before the coronavirus are receiving more than $60 per 28 pound crate—last year they got closer to $40 for the same amount.

But that’s not where the price hike for consumers comes from—shoppers are seeing prices of up to $6.38 per pound in some stores because there’s a shortage of the veggie.

United Press International reports the shortage should end once Mexico and Peru are again able to supply the U.S. with asparagus, but there’s no way to know when that will be. "Asparagus from Peru normally comes here in the bellies of passenger planes... those aren't coming, in anymore, and so neither is asparagus.....Mexico still is able to truck produce across the border, but Mexican farmers are having trouble obtaining labor to cut and package their crops."