Organic broccoli production status

Organic broccoli has good potential in the East. Current production is largely small-scale, with broccoli being one of many crops on mixed farms that have a modest direct market. Anecdotal reports suggests that many organic broccoli growers currently produce enough for their direct markets. Expansion of this market would be by adding growers where the local organic broccoli supply does not meet demand. Higher acreage per grower, and higher yields, would result from growers chosing to enter the wholesale market.

Results from the Census of Organic Horticulture show that organic broccoli production in the East is dramatically different from that in the West. For one thing the average western grower sells half a million dollars worth of broccoli, while the averavge eastern grower sell about one percent of that, about five thousand dollars worth.

The reported yields in the east are very low, only about a third of conventional. A likely contributor is that with such small broccoli acreage, the production system is not optimized for broccoli production. Fitting broccoli into the dimensions that are efficient for other crops could work well in the context of a market garden or CSA, but result in rather low yield.

Eastern growers are also obtaining roughly three times the price of western growers, reflecting the dominance of direct market sales rather than wholesale. The average price is also more than double the eastern wholesale price for conventional broccoli, reflecting both the organic premium and the direct market channel.