Soft fruit harvest 2017 satisfactory

In Baden-Württemberg, a total of 8,105 tonnes of soft fruit was harvested from 1,586 hectares in 2017. As a result, both the acreage and the crop remained virtually unchanged compared to the previous year, despite the hard, late frost, as the State Statistical Office notes.

Blackcurrants were cultivated on more than one third of the area (579 hectares) as the most important type of soft fruit. The decrease in acreage compared to 2016 was 5%, after extensive clearing had already been carried out. Red and white currants grew to 351 hectares, followed by field raspberries (244 hectares), gooseberries (129 hectares), blackberries (76 hectares) and blueberries (75 hectares). The aronia berry, known to be a healthy fruit, is currently very much in vogue. This is confirmed by the expansion of the acreage by 16 ha to 36 ha.

Picture: Statistik BW

About two-thirds of the harvested soft fruit consist of red and white berries (2,803 tonnes) and blackcurrants (2,416 tonnes), whose area yields in 2017 were in the range of the five-year average. An above-average harvest was achieved with blackberries. However, there are also berry varieties that were really affected by frost. Regarding raspberries in the open field; unfortunately there were many frozen plants. This led to a reduction of the harvest to 874 tonnes (-14%). More losses were seen amongst blueberries with 232 tonnes (-16%) and gooseberries with 540 tonnes (-21%).

In sheltered conditions, in greenhouses or in film tunnels, bushes were cultivated on 54 hectares, predominantly raspberries (44 hectares). With a good harvest of 423 tonnes, the previous year's level was exceeded by 45%. Among the 447 farms that growsoft fruit, 27 holdings are managing their crops according to biological criteria, producing some 150 tonnes of soft fruit on 89 hectares.

Source: Statistik BW