At the Pfälzer Spargeltag (Palatinate Asparagus Day) in January, Patrick Meinhardt from Tannenhof Meinhardt in Weiterstadt explained their future cultivation plans for green asparagus and whether the residual use of old white asparagus plants is still up-to-date. "In our company, we see that the sales figures for green asparagus are increasing, customer demand is improving every year, and we have to see how we can meet this demand," said Meinhardt at the beginning of his presentation. "Until now, we have used white asparagus plants that were in operation and had essentially run their course after six years of harvesting." Due to the changing framework conditions, they considered which alternative production methods could be better for the future.
Patrick Meinhardt during his presentation on green asparagus production. Photo: VSSE
To compare these production methods, he first looked at the current costs for an asparagus plantation and came up with a figure of around EUR 24,000, which an asparagus plantation costs until it can be harvested for the first time. Moreover, there are annual running costs of around EUR 4,000. "With a young asparagus plantation, I have to bear the investment costs at the beginning for the production of green asparagus. On the other hand, when using the old asparagus plantation, the entire investment costs are covered by the six years of white asparagus." From an operational perspective, the question is: what makes more sense economically? "When I divide the EUR 24,000 by six years, I have costs of EUR 4,000 per year for a young asparagus plant that I use directly for green asparagus because the annual costs remain the same for the plants if I keep them running." In his opinion, these EUR 4,000 can be earned back in three ways: harvest volume, harvest costs, and quality.
Five tons of green asparagus in the first six years
"With a plant that has been in production for six years, we are still doing quite well with 2.8 tons, but the problem is that the yield decreases with each additional year." He therefore compared the number of spears and the average cutting performance, which falls from year to year, with a newly planted green asparagus plant. "A new green plant yields an average of ten tons in the first six years, divided by 80 grams and calculated down to green asparagus, we can assume that five tons of green asparagus yield should be feasible on average in the first six years. That would correspond to 125,000 spears. We will have to wait and see if that is the case in the end. Perhaps I was a little optimistic, but you can also see it as a goal and if it is only 4,500 in the end, that's okay too."
However, an older plant definitely means a lower yield. "With this lower yield, if we ignore the cutting costs for the moment, we have to be able to save EUR 4,000 in investment costs. That doesn't look that difficult, but of course, there are other factors to consider."
When is a new investment more profitable?
One of these factors is the rising minimum wage. "If we look at the last five years alone, the minimum wage has risen by a third. The ratio of machine and investment costs to labor costs is shifting. Therefore, the question is: where is the tipping point? When is a new system more profitable for us than the old one?"
The old plant with approx. 50,000 spears and a cutting performance of 7.5 kg led to harvesting costs of EUR 1.71 during the operation. For the sake of comparability, he calculated a cutting performance of 11 kg per hour. A plant with five tons or 125,000 spears would accordingly reduce the costs per kilo cut. "The harvest for such a new plant is 0.55 EUR per kilo cheaper."
Production 25 per cent cheaper
With the old plant, his cutting costs for two tons are 3,420 EUR. Added to this would be the 4,000 EUR annual costs. "If I divide that by the two tons of yield, each kilo that I have produced costs me 3.71 EUR. The advantage of this variant is that you don't have to raise the investment costs separately." However, if the investment costs of around EUR 20,000 are available or can be borrowed, the calculation looks different. "For us, I can expect cutting costs of EUR 5,850 and annual costs of EUR 4,000, as well as additional costs of EUR 4,000 for the new plant, so that the production costs for a new plant amount to EUR 2.77 per kilo." This would mean a 25 percent cheaper production for the company in the future.
In addition to this hope, which in his opinion is not yet sufficient for a changeover, there are other reasons for changing production, such as the direct selection of varieties for green asparagus, the adaptation or optimization of cultivation methods (spacing, planting depth, double rows) and a change in the mentality of the workforce. Furthermore, this would include a flexible production volume in relation to the increased demand, a better assessment of the production costs and revenues, fewer labor hours required due to possibly mechanical harvesting, as well as better quality due to younger plants and better revenue opportunities.
More of a starting point than a solution
"The method of producing green asparagus from old white asparagus plants was absolutely the right way to start producing green asparagus," he emphasized. "You could select the best asparagus plants, continue to use them, and produce beautiful green asparagus. But now the customer has started to demand so much green asparagus that we can no longer meet demand in our existing areas. This means that we are starting to let the plants get even older for another year, and that leads to a decrease in quality."
In terms of varieties, Meinhardt continues to focus on dark green. "It is interesting that the varieties we are planting now will be anthocyanin-rich again because, on the customer side, nobody is interested in whether the asparagus is light green or dark green. I doubt that many consumers can even tell the difference. As long as customers don't explicitly request light green, then I'd rather have dark green because I think we can be more effective in our cultivation that way."
"I hope that we are going in the right direction, and I would be delighted to stand here again in two or three years and be able to say that it has worked. Anyone who is interested or is toying with the idea of growing green asparagus differently is welcome to get in touch with me," he offered at the end of his presentation.
For more information:
Patrick Meinhardt
Tannenhof Meinhardt
Orfelder Rod 7a
64331 Weiterstadt
Tel: +49 6150 - 961384 - 0
Fax: +49 6150 - 869 49 91
Mail: [email protected]
Web: www.tannenhof-spargel.de