Agriculture Minister Hinz with representatives of MGH asparagus © HMUKLV
With 2,142 hectares, about 8% of the surface used for the cultivation of German asparagus is situated in Hessen. In the previous year more than 10,000 metric tons of asparagus were harvested. The minister is pleased with the clear increase of organic asparagus. In 2015 267 metric tons of organic asparagus were harvested. The 54 hectares used for the cultivation of organic asparagus is 8.5 times larger compared to 2014 (6.1 hectare). “I’m very happy about this development. This is an impressive demonstration of the farmers’ response to the strong demand for organic asparagus. And still the demand is larger than the supply. I’m convinced that there is still room for growth of organic acreage,” stated the minister.
Minister Priska Hinz with the newly crowned asparagus queen Meta I and previous asparagus queens
© HMUKLV
In 2016 the asparagus season starts, due to the fluctuating temperatures in the spring, about mid-April. “This shows that the production of food is still run by the weather and not by the calendar,” continued Hinz. She also spoke about the amount of manual labor required for harvesting asparagus and that this is one of the reasons that asparagus have a certain price. “We, as customers, are all under the obligation to critically consider the relation between low prices in the stores and the production conditions of produce. And if necessary, we should accept slightly higher prices in order to allow future production of food in our region,” explained Hinz. But she is also convinced that consumers like to buy their asparagus from the local farmers since the Hessian asparagus are of excellent quality and consumers trust the producers. The minister further referred to the commitment of the Hessian state government to agriculture. The promotion of regional production is one of the goals of the state. To achieve this farmers are actively supported by the Agriculture State Office of Hesse and the university Geisenheim also contributes with research.
The minister spoke furthermore about projects that combined the cultivation of vegetables and the prevention of water pollution. “The south of the state supplies drinking water for millions of people while at the same time it is the main area of cultivation for asparagus. The physical overlap in vegetables and drinking water production doesn’t happen anywhere else in the whole of Germany. The Hessian Ministry of Agriculture promotes research to make sure this combination can continue without any problems.“