Due to the weather, the start of the season was very hesitant. Farms that grow asparagus without plastic covering had little opportunity to harvest before the Pentecost weekend. The farms that worked with elaborate double and triple plastic covers and created warm, dry and sandy asparagus beds were the most successful. Overall the supply was rather low until Pentecost and the prices were high everywhere.
After a strong initial demand, from mid May the demand reduced. And at the same time the supply of asparagus increased; this put heavy pressure on the prices and this caused a drop in the prices, mainly in wholesale.
During week 25 (20 June) the supply of German asparagus decreased. The situation flipped from oversupply to low supply in a short period of time. This change ended low-price phase of the past few weeks and the average wholesale selling prices increased again, but the prices did not quite reach the level of the previous year.
On the whole, asparagus farmers look back on an unstable season, with extreme harvest fluctuations, and many farmers were caught off guard.
For more information:
Vereinigung der Spargelanbauer in Niedersachsen
(Association of asparagus growers in Lower Saxony)
Lange Straße 7827318 Hoya
Phone: 04251 3002
Mobile phone: 0171 7771100
info@spargelvereinigung.de
www.spargelvereinigung.de