In 2018, German fruit growers are expecting an apple harvest of 1.1 million tons and a pear harvest of 46 800 tons. According to provisional estimates for August 2018, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the apple harvest will be just under 17% higher than the average of the last ten years of 934,600 tons. The pear harvest could exceed the ten-year average of almost 39,600 tons by about 18%.
Compared to the very poor harvest year of 2017, when nearly 596,700 tons of apples and 23,400 tons of pears were harvested, this represents an increase of over 82% for apples and 100% for pears. This is mainly due to the favorable weather conditions in the spring of 2018.
Apples are cultivated nationwide on an area of almost 33,940 hectares. The most important German cultivation areas are found in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Bodenseeregion), Lower Saxony ("Altes Land") and in Saxonia. More than two-thirds of all apples are expected to be harvested in these federal states. The whole German cultivated area for pears amounts to 2,150 hectares. The largest cultivations for pears are in Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony and Bavaria. More than two-thirds of all pears are expected to be harvested in these three countries.
The area data for the current core fruit seed estimate in market fruit growing is based on the fruit tree cultivation survey in 2017.
Source: Destatis