Twin City Foods Pea Growers — the last green pea processing plant in the Northwest — won’t process the vegetable in 2010, the company announced this week.
The move was fueled by an excess of inventory and a soft market for green peas, according to a press release from the Western Washington Agricultural Association.
TCF also cited the costs of raw products and hauling as reasons for reducing pea production next year.
Northwest farmers produced 32,000 acres of peas in 1968, said Dan McMoran, agriculture and natural resources extension educator for Washington State University.
Pea production accounted for 5,500 acres of Northwest farmland last year.
In 2010, no peas will be grown in the area, McMoran said.
The Stanwood pea processor said production is only stalled for 2010 at this point, and its future status will be determined sometime next summer or fall.
“The WWAA will continue to monitor the situation closely and work with TCF to do everything we can to get green pea production back at Stanwood,” the release said.
