LEXINGTON, Ky. — A new study by the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture has found the state’s produce industry growing to the point of having a record year.

The 2012 Kentucky Produce Planting and Marketing Intensions Grower Survey and Outlook is conducted every other year as a way to help producers in a high-value, high-risk industry that needs as current of an information source as possible. This is according to Tim Woods, UK agricultural economics extension professor and the principal investigator for the survey.

“In terms of some of the production and marketing activity, produce seemed to take a little bit of a backseat (for awhile), but now it seems to be going through a renaissance,” he said.

Woods also said getting close to real-time information out to producers is important, as opposed to waiting on something like a five-year agriculture census to provide the information.

If projections hold, Kentucky’s produce industry may reach the $33 million mark for the first time this year. Woods said it’s not to say producers haven’t struggled with drought issues like everyone else, but produce growers tend to have a little bit more intensive production and much more irrigation than what one would see with grain crops, hay or livestock.

“We have some folks that have had surprisingly really strong crops and even some surplus crops,” he reported.

Woods said that one of the drivers for the increase in the produce industry is more consumer demand for locally grown foods.

“There is a very strong interest in the local products. The Kentucky Proud program has done a lot to support a lot of the local produce that’s going into a number of different venues, with schools and restaurants and the buy-local programs at some of the groceries,” he said.

Produce auctions have also played an enormous part in helping create a market outlet for the small- to medium-sized producers, said Woods. “They have a good avenue to go there and move a pretty decent volume of products.”

The auctions work much the same way as any other, in that buyers come through and bid on the goods, with the best-looking produce getting the higher bid. Woods said with the growth of such markets have come more buyers from more places, some from as far away as Chicago.

Between 1997-2007, the industry here received a boost from a series of produce cooperatives increasing sales from $10.4 million in 1997 to $24.025 million in 2007, according to information from UK. But today most of the co-ops are gone and much of that wholesale activity has “moved through private wholesale associations, auctions and individual producer wholesale arrangements.”

The survey noted Kentucky producers rely heavily on direct markets, with “41.2 percent of survey responders indicating they sell more than 10 percent of their product through farmers’ markets and 40.5 percent selling at least 10 percent through on-farm markets.”

The number of farmers’ markets has more than tripled (40 to 151) in the last 14 years, providing more sales opportunities for farmers. According to the survey, market gross sales account for about 25 percent of the industry’s gross sales. That $33 million is still preliminary, said Woods. There is a lot of produce yet to sell, as the fall crops will soon hit the markets and all of that will contribute to the final numbers.

Woods credits much of the success to the efforts the state has made to create the markets that are now available to growers throughout Kentucky, as farms have moved from crops like tobacco into the produce sector. While the industry is dominated by producers who make less than $50,000 in gross sales, he thinks commercial horticulture has a future here.

“I think we’ll see that eventually, due in part to our proximity to some bigger markets,” he said. “It’s really striking to see the growth and the value of both fruits and vegetables in Kentucky, relative to our neighbors in the region.”

The survey can be found at www.uky. edu/Ag/NewCrops