Last weekend saw the start of the apple season on Lake Constance. Gerhard Pietsch from Obst vom Bodensee Vertriebsgesellschaft gives us insights into the qualities, quantities and new trends for the 2021/2022 season.
Good to very good qualities
"The harvest quantity of apples is slightly larger than in the previous year, but overall is in line with the average of recent years. Pears from Germany, both conventional and organic, are already meeting high demand at an early stage. Overall, we expect good to very good qualities and look forward in particular to a very good coloring of the fruit," Pietsch tells us.
Larger and better quality growers
According to the Federal Statistical Office, fewer and fewer people are working in agriculture, which also applies to OVB: "We are supplied by 600 growers at the affiliated wholesale markets. A few years ago, there were more than 1,000. The area under cultivation has hardly increased. Sideline farms have leased out their land. That's how larger and also better quality grower farms have emerged."
Harvest 
labor is also still essential, according to Pietsch: "Due to the amount of manual labor involved in harvesting the fruit, a consistent number of workers is necessary. Support from machines, such as the Pluk-O-Trak, for example, helps a little, but does not yet noticeably reduce the use of humans in harvesting. Automated harvesting robots are far from market-ready and won't be usable as an alternative for many years."
Club varieties and sustainable packaging are trending
"There is a trend toward club apple concepts. We are also going down this path. But we also rely very heavily on traditional apple varieties, such as Elstar, which are in very high demand from Lake Constance. But also on Gala, Braeburn, Pinova and the Jona-Gold Group. We have a constantly increasing demand for sustainable packaging - here we are in constant exchange with research and packaging manufacturers," says Pietsch. "Our customers continue to expect reliable delivery. All of our processes are geared toward meeting customer requirements."
For more information:
Gerhard Pietsch
Obst vom Bodensee Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH
Merkurstraße 7
88046 Friedrichshafen
Tel. +49 (0) 7541-97028-0
Fax +49 (0) 7541-97028-51
info@obst-vom-bodensee.de
www.obst-vom-bodensee.de