Heideknoblauch GbR from Dedelstorf consists of a merger of the Warnecke and Rantze families. The farm began producing and marketing its garlic in spring 2018. In an interview with Carsten Warnecke, he speaks about how the young business mastered the last few months and what makes garlic from the "Heide" so special.
Conventionality and regionality
Heidelknoblauch GbR relies on a conventional form of farming. "We want to generate added value primarily through regionality and not necessarily through organic cultivation, because that is not implemented in our farms in this way. Our customers include a food retail chain, where we deliver our products directly to the central warehouse, and some wholesalers in Hamburg, who have been with us since the beginning, as well as the wholesale markets in Hanover and Berlin."
Delayed garlic growth and crop failures
"We are, after all, in the middle of the garlic season, so we have plenty of work. Thanks to the recent rainfall, the situation is a little more relaxed overall," Warnecke says on the current season. "We had a late spring, which caused delays in garlic growth. Because this meant we could not start harvesting until later, we were also unable to achieve the same volumes as in recent years. We had failures of 50-60% in the early varieties."
Carsten Warnecke (l.) and Jonas Rantze. Photo: Heideknoblauch GbR
Good quality and delivery speed
In terms of quality and delivery speed, however, Warnecke is positive: "Heideknoblauch stands for absolute freshness. In addition, we manage to offer the product to the consumer within 24 hours, ready to hand, directly after harvesting."
Nevertheless, the cold weather did not leave this business unaffected. "Our customers were understandable about various delivery bottlenecks, as we of course cannot influence the weather. At the same time, however, it was difficult for customers to plan ahead, as it was questionable whether they would be able to keep the product in their assortment at all. But because we are a fairly small company, we can also react and make arrangements at short notice. And of course we would like to expand cultivation, but for that, buyers from the food retail sector must also be prepared to make arrangements in good time for the next cultivation season."
Marketing strategies for limited quantities
"We do supply farm stores and smaller retail outlets, but a product like garlic, which is an easy takeaway in the supermarket, is more difficult to market in the regional area because the quantities are relatively limited. Unlike potatoes, for example, where you can sell up to 10kg bags in the grocery store, garlic is about quantities of about 100-200g. With a harvest of several tons, the catchment or marketing area must of course be correspondingly larger. To be able to operate more widely, marketing through the large chains probably works best."
However, Warnecke is still somewhat reserved about the packaging used by his company: "We are tinkering with new packaging but without netting, as we would like to produce something special for our product."
Photo: Heideknoblauch GbR
Price and performance creation
"We hope that end consumers of the product our goods would also be willing to pay corresponding prices, since the added value of the product is shown both in its regionality and in the many handmade." In general, however, this could be said for all food products, Warnecke said. "It would be nice if the realization of the end consumer to spend more money on regional goods would prevail, especially if the goods are not anonymously sourced from abroad. Also the further development of agriculture can only happen if a corresponding appreciation and accordingly also a creation of value on the farms takes place."
For more information:
Heideknoblauch GbR
Carsten Warnecke und Jonas Rantze
Am Mühlenfeld 4
29386 Dedelstorf
Te: +49 (0)172-6322877
E-Mail: info@heideknoblauch.de
Web: https://www.heideknoblauch.de/home