Organic Sweet Corn Ready for Memorial Day Grilling!

According to one of the larger western producers of sweet corn, there is very little fresh market, bulk organic sweet corn available at any time of the year. 

“You might find some small local growers that could have a small deal, but to be honest with you, I do not know any grower producing fresh market sweet corn as a bulk commodity.”

So said Daren Van Dyke, sales and marketing manager for Five Crown Marketing in Brawley, CA.  He said Five Crowns is probably the largest grower-packer of organic sweet corn in California and Arizona, indicating that if there was additional supplies, he would probably know about it.

Daren Van Dyke, sales and marketing manager for Five Crown Marketing

Five Crowns, and others, do grow organic sweet corn, but it usually sold as a value-added item with three or four ears to a tray, trimmed and cleaned.  Van Dyke said it is very difficult and expensive to grow organic sweet corn without the benefit of conventional crop protection tools.  Worms are a natural enemy of the sweet corn plant and without use of those tools, an organic carton is going to have infected ears – as much as 30 percent, according to the Five Crowns sales executive. 

Consequently, Van Dyke said, the best way to market organic sweet corn is to trim and clean it up so the consumer doesn’t get any unexpected surprises.  Of course that makes the product expensive and not a great candidate for retail promotion as conventional corn is typically merchandised at very attractive prices during the traditional summer holiday periods,  such as Memorial Day and Fourth of July.

Sweet corn

Van Dyke said there was very little tray-packed organic sweet corn available for this Memorial Day weekend but he does expect good supplies for the Fourth of July marketing period and throughout the summer, but without promotional pricing opportunities.  Five Crowns markets its organic sweet corn production through GloriAnn Farms, Inc., a value-added sweet corn packer/marketer based in Tracy, CA. 

Katie Veenstra, director of marketing for GloriAnn confirmed that organic sweet corn is a seasonal product, even as a tray pack item.  “We are just starting to get it now,” she said this week, “and we will have it into October.  Usually we only have limited supply.”

Katie Veenstra, director of marketing for GloriAnn

Van Dyke said Five Crown is growing its production but it is doing so in a tempered fashion, matching increases in acreage with the demands of its customers. Organic sweet corn is simply too expensive to grow, he said, and the firm does not want its increase in supply to get ahead of the demand curve.