Austrian vegetables defied extreme weather in 2013

For the Austrian agricultural sector, 2013 was a year full of extreme weather. Nevertheless the vegetable harvest remained relatively stable. The harvested volume of agricultural and horticultural vegetables amounted to 595.000 tonnes in 2013, according to Statistik Austria. That is 3% less than last year. Looking at the average over the last five years, however, the harvested volume increased by 4 percent. The area of cultivation was also increased, however.

The Austrian growers experienced unfavourable weather conditions this year. There was a long winter and a cool, wet start to the summer with high water levels. After that a summer with periods of high temperatures and week long droughts.

With the fruit vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumber, the harvest of 144.000 tonnes was only slightly less than the total for 2012. With cabbage, leaf and stem vegetables there was a considerable decrease in the harvest of
13 percent compared to last year, the harvest arriving at 152.600 tonnes. With legumes, root vegetables and onions the production quantity increased even slightly by 2% to 298.000 tonnes because of the increased growing area (+9%).