The fruit and vegetable cooperatives in Baden-Württemberg can look back on a year in which the weather posed great challenges to them. The member companies of the twelve cooperatives supplied 224,000 tonnes of fruit and 112,000 tonnes of vegetables for sales in 2016. That is 17 per cent less fruit and eight per cent less vegetables than in 2015, the BWGV (Baden-Württembergische Genossenschaftsverband) announced during its annual press conference. “Especially hail and heavy rain partially led to large harvest losses,” emphasised BWGV chairman Roman Glaser. However, considering the weather led to smaller harvests throughout Germany, higher prices could be asked for fruit and vegetables during sales.
The total sales achieved by the cooperatives and their sales companies amounted to 453 million euro (2015: 485 million euro). This means a decrease of almost seven per cent compared to 2015. Roman Glaser: “The higher prices might not have compensated completely for the harvest loss, but considering the annual average we can be more than satisfied with the result.” The product with the most sales and production amount was the apple in 2016, with sales of about 80 million euro and a sales amount of 182,000 tonnes. Strawberries contributed 26.2 million euro to sales, followed by asparagus with 25.6 million euro and tomatoes with 24.2 million euro.