Young shoppers like sweet corn
Compared to other kinds of fresh vegetables sweet corn has a fairly young consumer base and therefore its future looks good. Because eating habits learned at a young age often survive into old age.
In general the presence of children in the household seems to have a positive effect on the sweet corn consumption. This explains Dr. Hans-Christoph Behr, of the Agricultural Market Information Company (AMI) in Bonn in a publication of the German corn committee (DMK).
Families where the main shopper is between 30 and 39 years the consumption of fresh corn is 56 percent higher than the average, and the consumption of pre-cooked corn is as high as 77 percent. But in the age group of 60- to 69-year-olds, the consumption of fresh sweet corn is 23 percent below the average.
The cultivation of sweet corn is a Southern affair. 96 percent of the acreage is situated in the states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and especially Baden-Württemberg. The acreage is 1,919 hectares divided over 509 farms. That could mean that each farm has an average of 4 hectares for the cultivation of sweet corn. However that is not the case; a few specialists’ farms have over 50 ha of sweet corn.
Since the year 2000 the cultivation of sweet corn increased by an average of 77 ha or 5 percent per year. A particular challenge for sweet corn farmers is to keep their distance from fodder maize areas. Through cross-pollination their produce may lose its specific sweetness, which is considered a serious defect.
The German farmers are focused on the greengrocers. The season starts in June and ends around October. From April to June large quantities fresh sweet corn are imported. 85 percent of the import comes from the EU, and mainly from Spain. The 15 percent of the sweet corn that is imported from outside Europe comes mostly from Morocco. From 2003 to 2014 the import rose with almost 5 percent every year. The peak was 4000 metric tonnes in 2012. For 2014 an import volume of 3400 metric tonnes is calculated. There also is a major export market, 2500 metric tonnes of the fresh produce is exported.
Source: www.proplanta.de