Broccoli is king for Parker Farms

Tim Linden

May 2, 2024

Currently Georgia is the main broccoli supply source for Virginia-based Parker Farms, which has a robust network of growers up and down the East Coast to allow it to supply crowns, bunched and value-added options every day of the year.

“We’ve been cutting broccoli in Georgia since April 1,” said Sean McFadden, who is involved in business development for the family farming operation. He said the broccoli production starts in Florida each year and moves up through Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Upstate New York through the summer before following the same path south to provide that 365 day a year coverage. Though broccoli is its top crop and the only one it has throughout the year, Parker Farms has a strong portfolio of vegetable crops, including sweet corn, squashes, cucumber and peppers, each of which will be starting up in Georgia in the coming weeks.

“Depending upon the weather, we expect our sweet corn deal to get going around May 15,” McFadden said. “We are already lining up promotions and retailer ads for Memorial Day.”

From Georgia, the company loads from two packing facilities, one in Barwick and another in Vidalia. “P and P Farms, Martin Farms and Hart Farms are our three growers that load out of Barwick while 5W Farms is our Vidalia grower,” he said.

He added that Parker Farms is also working with some outside organic growers in Georgia in an effort to get a jump start on production in that sector to lengthen the season on its organic lineup. “We are continuing to grow our organic production, adding acreage every year,” McFadden said. “We are taking a slow-growth approach building our program from the bottom up.”

Returning to its signature broccoli crop, he revealed that the majority of sales are crowns, but Parker Farms still has a solid program of bunch broccoli sales and value-added options are also available. “We offer a tray pack for retailers of crowns and we also have a retail pack of bagged bunches,” he said. “We are always looking for value-added ideas and working with our customers to provide them with what they want.”

Surveying the current spring market price, McFadden said it’s a little lower than they would like as there is still a lot of volume coming out of Mexico that is impacting the supply/demand situation.

As far as broccoli trends go, he said both retail and foodservice customers have increased their orders for iceless broccoli. “They don’t want the ice in their distribution centers,” he said, adding that Parker Farms hydrocools the broccoli to 34 degrees and ships it at 32 degrees to assure that the product arrives in great shape with a long shelf life.

McFadden added that Parker Farms transportation hub of its dedicated fleet is located in Soperton, GA, which allows the firm to take control of the logistics. “One of our strengths is we have a fleet of trucks that belong to us, which allows us to make sure we can get the product delivered to the distribution centers on time and in great shape.”

As production moves up the Eastern Seaboard this spring and summer, Parker Farms also will feature other vegetable crops at different times including asparagus and eggplant.

Tim Linden

About Tim Linden |

Tim Linden grew up in a produce family as both his father and grandfather spent their business careers on the wholesale terminal markets in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Tim graduated from San Diego State University in 1974 with a degree in journalism. Shortly thereafter he began his career at The Packer where he stayed for eight years, leaving in 1983 to join Western Growers as editor of its monthly magazine. In 1986, Tim launched Champ Publishing as an agricultural publishing specialty company.

Today he is a contract publisher for several trade associations and writes extensively on all aspects of the produce business. He began writing for The Produce News in 1997, and currently wears the title of Editor at Large.

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