“Troubled” Spanish winter affects quality of lettuce

The lettuce season in Spain is slowly drawing to a close. During the six months of winter, the Europe-wide operating German BEHR AG grows its lettuce products on Spanish fields. As such, the company, specialized in fresh vegetables, guarantees supply of its products to the German market all year round. “Lately it has been very cold and rainy in our Spanish growing area,” reports Birger Exner, head of marketing of BEHR AG. The bad weather negatively affects the harvest: “Because of this continuing bad weather, we have a slower growth, resulting in lesser quantities to provide.”

Demand greater than supply
Generally, it takes the company three days to transport its products from its Spanish growing areas to Germany. Currently, the high demand for lettuce can only be satisfied with difficulty because of the decreasing supply. “Because of the low temperatures, the products are in short supply. The lettuce season in Spain, which has “been very troubled” for the firm, goes on until May. At the start of May BEHR AG already provides its customers partially with German products.

First German outdoor lettuce: Ripe for harvest at the start of May
The lettuce of BEHR is grown at company sites in Seevetal (Northern Lower Saxony), in Gresse (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and in Büttelborn (Südhessen). In Germany the company BEHR exclusively grows its crops under outdoor conditions. They are currently planting. Three weeks ago, the first plants were put in the soil. We expect that the first lettuce will be ripe for the harvest at the start of May. “How the next harvest will pan out, however, is impossible to say at the moment.” So many factors play a role in growth – weather, light, storms – it is hard to make a concrete forecast,” the head of marketing explains, “Unfortunately, we can't look into the future yet.”

Rising consumer prices because of minimum wages are to be expected
Regarding the minimum wage, BEHR AG expects that the minimum wage will also be noticable in the lettuce sector. As a consequence of the minimum wage law, the company expects that production costs in general will rise. BEHR AG has invested heavily in labor saving technoolgy over the last years, however, and has already paid high wages that were above average. Insofar, the consequences for BEHR AG are managable, which is not generally the case in the industry: “We hope that the industry distinguishes itself by its adherence to law, and that the LEH puts the resulting, higher asking prices through to the consumers”.

Birgner Exner
BEHR AG
Parkstraße 2, 21220 Seevetal
Tel. +49 (0)4185 7977732
bexner@behr-ag.com
www.behr-ag.com