In France, the endive harvest is spread out over the whole year. During the winter months, the harvest is concentrated in the south-east of France. All in all, endive is cultivated in France on 971 hectares in the winter months of the 2014/15 season, data from Agreste show. That is a 4% smaller acreage than last year. This is the result of decreasing demand, both domestically and on the important German market, the German Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI) reports on its website.
While the cultivation of escarole endive has decreased by 6%, the acreage for curly endive only decreased by 3%. Production will, despite the decreased acreage, likely turn out to be 3% larger than in 2013/14, thanks to a larger harvest amount for curly endive (+7%). Looking at a longer period, however, endive production in France is decreasing. This season's expected harvest amount is about 11% below the five-year average.
Germany is the main buyer of French endive. In 2013, about one third of the total export (4,300 tonnes) went to Germany. Great Britain follows as the second most important export country.