Good quality Dutch asparagus at German wholesales

In the second week after Easter, 13-19 April 2015, the German asparagus supply increased again at the wholesale markets in Germany. According to this week's report in the BLE (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food) newsletter wk16. Due to the good weather, demand for the white asparagus increased. Despite the growing demand the wholesalers failed to sell all their stock. As a result, they were forced to gradually reduce prices. The price of white German asparagus fell from 13.44 Euros per kilo from the previous week, to an average of 9.82 Euros per kilo.

The most expensive asparagus come from the Netherlands
The white asparagus from Germany dominated the market. Its market share was approximately 49.2 percent. Followed closely by white asparagus imported from Greece with 44.2 percent. Furthermore, a part of the supply existed of asparagus from the Netherlands, with a share of about 5.0 percent. Small amounts of white asparagus came from Italy, Spain (0.7 percent each) and Peru (0.2 percent). Dutch asparagus reached the highest price, on average 10.6 Euros per kilo. Because of the good quality Dutch asparagus could be serious competition for German asparagus. The cheapest asparagus comes from Spain (5.67 Euros per kilo) and Greece (5.45 Euros per kilo). White asparagus from Peru cost an average of around 7.25 Euros per kilo, while Italian asparagus cost around 7.42 Euros per kilo.

Thick-stemmed asparagus are in high demand
The thick asparagus spears were in greatest demand. Due to this great demand thick asparagus spears did not decrease in price as fast as the thinner asparagus. In Frankfurt, the demand for asparagus was higher than the supply. Nevertheless, this didn’t cause a raise in the prices, because the sellers did not want to jeopardize good future sales. At the wholesale market in Munich the decline in price lasted only until Wednesday, then the increased demand lasted until the weekend. The import from Greece and Spain increased, but were only little in demand.

Average prices of green asparagus © BLE

Green asparagus market dominated by Spain
Spanish asparagus largely dominated the green asparagus supply. Its market share was approximately 59.3 percent. Followed by green asparagus from Germany (15.7 percent), Greece (12.0 per cent), Peru (7.4 percent), Italy (3.7 percent) and green varieties from Mexico and the United States (0.9 percent each). Due to the increased supply, prices for green asparagus tended to decrease. German green asparagus obtained the highest prices with 10.24 Euros per kilo. Green asparagus from Spain, although market leader, only obtained on average 5.38 Euros per kilo. And many variants from Greece received at best 3.82 Euros per kilo.

For more information and statistics: BLE Marktbericht16/15 KW (German)