The president and CEO of a family-owned and operated farming operation near Los Banos in California’s Central Valley believes that imported garlic from China is inferior to garlic grown in California.
Cannon Michael, president/CEO of Bowles Farming Co., said in a statement that California garlic is “very high quality” and produced with high regulations compared to China.
“Consumers should try and be aware of purchasing from places with lower standards; their dollar makes an impact on the supply chain,” Michael told USDA Newswire. “Not paying for production that uses slave/prison labor and has low standards of care is the responsibility of the consumer. People need to know where their food is coming from and who is producing it.”
California garlic farmers such as Bowles Farming can compete with China on quality, but overall increases in garlic’s availability leads to lower prices, Michael said.
Demand for garlic from China has been driven largely by lower prices and the public being unaware of garlic growing and processing operations in China, Olam Spices said.
“There are a lot of practices that distort prices around the world. The ban on certain imports from the Xinjiang region has helped with some prices,” Michael said. “California relies on global trade so trade restrictions can definitely have negative repercussions.”
The United States imported approximately “199 million pounds of fresh and 155 million pounds of dried garlic” in 2018, with much of it coming from China, Olam Spices said in citing United Nations Comtrade data.
More than 1 million farmers grow garlic in China in five growing regions. Those farmers use fertilizers and pesticides without documentation or regulation. The farmers frequently grow garlic alongside peanuts, raising concerns about potential allergen risks, critics charge.
In the early 1990s, China accounted for 2% of garlic imports to the U.S., Spices Inc. said. By 2012, China imported around 66% of the U.S.'s garlic. California's Central Valley region has rich soil and the ideal climate for growing garlic, but California farmers have been growing less and less garlic as Chinese garlic has flooded the market.
Some U.S. American garlic growers appreciated former President Donald Trump's tariffs on garlic from China, noting that the tariffs allowed them to boost domestic garlic sales, Reuters reported.
“In a perfect world, we’d love to see the tariffs stay on forever,” Ken Christopher, executive vice president of family-owned Christopher Ranch, told Reuters in 2019.
Bowles Farming's garlic partners are Christopher Ranch and Olam, its website said. Michael, who is a sixth-generation farmer and a University of California Berkeley graduate, took over the family farming business in 2014 following the retirement of his uncle, Philip Bowles.
Michael says he is passionate about California agriculture, intelligent water policy, environmental stewardship, ethical treatment of workers, and sustainable production, the business’ website said.
