Dick Smith's Asparagus in 2008
Asparagus is normally harvested in Oct/Nov each year, the 2006 season was badly affected by the drought and two very severe frosts.

Unfortunately we only got canned 20% of what we needed for the Dick Smith Foods Asparagus Spears. This meant that we ran out of stock in April 2007. Woolworths then deleted the Cuts and Tips in August due to poor sales; it seems Australian consumers do not want to support Australian products anymore.

With the 2007 crop yield again predicted to be poor and more people buying fresh Asparagus. We were faced with a very difficult decision. As the growers get a better return for fresh Asparagus, we would need to pay a higher price - estimated to add $1.20 per can if we were to continue canning. Based on the deletion of the Dick Smith Foods Cuts and Tips product we could not run the economic risk to can Asparagus with no guarantee that the Supermarkets would put it on the shelf.

Unfortunately as we were the last company to can Australian Asparagus it now means that all canned Asparagus sold in Australia now is imported from Peru or China.

We will be reviewing this decision for the 2008 harvest year, but things do not look hopeful.