Germany: Fruit growers hope for a better harvest in 2018

After the extremely poor apple harvest in 2017, the fruit farmers in the Alten Land hope for better conditions in 2018. The trees are rested and the inflorescence is strong, said Joerg Hilbers, deputy managing director of the orchard trials association in the Altes Land (OVR), on the occasion of the Norddeutsche Obstbautage in Jork. But what this year will ultimately bring, no one can tell yet.

Around 170 exhibitors will be presenting their products and innovations at the Obstbautage, that started on Wednesday. The organizers are expecting about 5,000 visitors in Jork in the Altes Land, southwest of the Elbe. The area is one of the most important fruit growing regions in Europe with more than 10,000 hectare of fruit cultivated there.

Ulrich Buchterkirch from the Department of Pomology in Lower Saxony emphasized that fruit growers in the north really had it hard last year. The harvest was very bad throughout Germany. But the prices were good.

In previous years, according to information, every third dessert apple produced in Germany came from the Altes Land, where 330,000 tons are usually harvested every year. In 2017, one in two apples came from this region, as the harvest in Germany, which is usually around one million tonnes, had almost halved. Apples are grown on 68 percent of the fruit tree arcreage, which is about 34,000 hectares in total.

Source: Proplanta