Brandenburg's vegetable acreage reaches 6,800 hectares

In 2017, 207 Brandenburg companies grew more than 6,800 hectares of outdoor vegetables. Thus, compared to 2016, the open field acreage has been expanded by 15% or around 900 hectares.

As reported by the Office of Statistics Berlin Brandenburg, about a quarter of the companies worked according to the guidelines of organic farming. Here, too, the vegetable acreage increased noticeably, by 11 percent. The significant increase in acreage is mainly attributable to asparagus - with an increase of 536 hectares - and to carrots - with an increase of 271 hectares.

The increase in acreage was accompanied by an increase in the total amount of outdoor vegetables by around 8 percent to 92,200 tons. Nevertheless, extreme weather conditions with late frosts and heavy rainfall led to considerable yield reductions in many crops. Yields of white cabbage dropped by 79 percent, radish by 38 percent and onions by 27 percent compared to 2016.

With a cultivated area of almost 4,900 hectares, asparagus is the defining vegetable culture in the state of Brandenburg. As a result of the increase in acreage, the largest harvest recorded so far since 1991 -at just under 22,000 tonnes- is also the largest total crop yield recorded since 1991. At the same time, the yield of 56.6 dt/ha was approximately at the level of the six-year average from 2011 to 2016.

The production of pickle cucumbers, which is traditionally important for Brandenburg, fell by almost 40 hectares to 460 hectares. This continued the trend of recent years. Nevertheless, the yield increased by 5.5 percent to 677.5 dt/ha, thus achieving a total crop of 31,200 tonnes, comparable to the previous year.

The Brandenburg greenhouse vegetable production was cultivated on 73 farms, on a total of 57 hectares. The largest shares were accounted for by tomatoes (34 hectares), cucumbers (9 hectares) and peppers (7 hectares). The harvest increased by a quarter compared to 2016, to 18,700 tonnes. For cucumbers, the yield increased by 20 percent to more than 4,800 dt/ha. Here, individual farms benefited from excellent growing conditions, using modern climate control systems and carbon dioxide fertilizer systems.

Source: Statistics BB