According to Agreste, despite coming out of a good period with high prices in January and February, lettuce prices collapsed at the beginning of spring.
The frost over the winter limited production, but the mild weather in March revived lettuce harvests. Overproduction invaded the shelves and demand was not high enough. Prices therefore plummeted 18% below the prices recorded at the same time in 2016. Agreste explains that “Lettuce is declared to be in an economic crisis since the 23rd March”.
Over the 2016-2017 season, the winter lettuce harvest is estimated to have decreased by 8% to 307 million lettuce heads. The decrease is greatest for cut lettuce. Batavia, meanwhile, only shows a slight decrease. Acreage has decreased by 5% over the year to 4,200 hectares. Three quarters of the acreage is in the South East.