Consumption of vegetables has gone up
Swiss eat 86 kg of vegetables per capita
With processed vegetables the Swiss share is less and is roughly a fifth of the total quantity consumed in Switzerland.
© gemuese.ch
Companies
Many companies produce vegetables “on the side”. The number of specialized “professional” companies amounts to around 1800. These produce 95 percent of the total supply. The vegetable growing surface area has slightly increased over the past years. The average amount of cultivation area per company has increased. With this, the industry has responded to increasing price- and business rival-pressure. The trend is clearly moving towards larger, specialized companies. Statistics show: compared to 1996, less companies cultivate multiple areas.
Cultivation areas
In terms of surface area, the cantons Bern, Zurich and Aargau are the most important vegetable cantons in Switzerland.
The most important vegetable types © gemuese.ch
According to data from the Swiss state office for statistics, the outdoor vegetable cultivation area amounts to 10,000 hectares. That is 1 percent of the total effective agricultural area. However, with this rather small area, the vegetable industry makes close to 10 percent of the total production value in Swiss agriculture. That Is clearly more than for example the grain-, potato- or fruit industries turn over.
In terms of surface area, carrots lead the rankings with over 1500 hectares, followed by iceberg lettuce, green and red head lettuce, onions and beans. The ten most important vegetables cover close to 50 percent of the Swiss vegetable growing surface area.
Because a land parcel (outdoors and in greenhouses) can be cultivated with several different kinds of vegetables each year, on paper the yearly cultivation area grows by almost 15,000 hectares
In professional vegetable growing, cultivations that are popular among consumers, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, grow in greenhouses. In this the distinction is made between high glass/ high plastic with and high tunnel/ high plastic without solid foundations. Both together form the greenhouse construction area. This lies lower than the officially accounted cultivation area, because the soil in greenhouses is also used several times per year. The areas of sheltered cultivation have clearly increased in the last 20 years.
Most imported goods come from the EU
Swiss vegetable production covers 55 percent of the yearly supply of fresh vegetables. Imports guarantee a steady supply of vegetables throughout the year. For example when certain vegetables do not grow in Switzerland for climate reasons. Sometimes though, even in summer shortages of supply arise for Swiss vegetables, for example when the weather is going haywire. And then there are vegetables such as for example bell peppers, which barely grow in Switzerland for technical reasons, but are nevertheless very popular.
A look into the statistics shows that over 75% of imported vegetables comes from the EU. Among production countries, Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands are in the top places. Split according to cultivations, these countries are also in the foreground. However, it is worth noting that meanwhile, Morocco delivers a quarter of the quantity of tomatoes.
Source: www.gemuese.ch