Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for Southern Specialties Inc., conducted this Peruvian asparagus interview while in Monterey, CA, shortly after attending the Produce Marketing Association’s Foodservice Conference.

He said that was an important fact “since we have a significant customer base in the foodservice community for our asparagus. And that part of the business continues to grow.”

Charlie EagleMr. Eagle said that while the white tablecloth restaurant category used to be the main buyer in the foodservice arena for asparagus, this vegetable item has gained more widespread use in recent years.

“We are finding that the multi-unit chains are very bullish on asparagus as a menu item,” he said.

And the Southern Specialties executive said that the play seems to be a national one, with no geographic bias. “We are getting very good national distribution [in foodservice]. We are selling both the East Coast and the West Coast as well as [restaurant] chains throughout the country.”

For the most part, Mr. Eagle said that the foodservice customer is buying the traditional 11-pound bulk pack of asparagus.

Southern Specialties is based in Pompano Beach, FL, though Mr. Eagle works out of Atlanta. The firm continues to see very good growth in the value-added packs at the retail level. He said the company offers a wide variety of options, including a two-pound club pack, asparagus tips in six-ounce, 10-ounce and one-pound bags and wrappers, and microwavable asparagus spears in a variety of packs.

The offerings are mostly for green asparagus, as Southern Specialties has not seen good demand for these packs with the purple or white varieties.

“We are seeing a lot of growth in the sales of asparagus in the club stores with the club pack,” Mr. Eagle said. “The club stores like the club pack, which gives them added food-safety and quality assurances.”

In the conventional supermarket chains, Mr. Eagle said that the value-added items typically result in added sales. “What we have found is these value-added products (the tips) do not take away from bulk sales of naked asparagus. It is an additional sale.”

For the 2012 Peruvian asparagus deal, Mr. Eagle expects Southern Specialties’ volume to be the same as last year or just slightly larger.

“We don’t see any dramatic change for this year,” he said. “We are looking for the retail price to be slightly higher as there are some areas that lost a little volume and there is increased demand from Europe. Those two factors should combine to drive the price up a little bit.”