The first free-range asparagus is here. In the Palatinate and in Rheinhessen some stems under film have already been harvested; in South Hesse the harvest started this Wednesday. In Baden, the popular spring vegetables from multi-covered film tunnel will come on the market weekend.
"We are 14 days earlier than last year," said the chairman of the focus group Asparagus South Hesse, Rolf Meinhardt, from Tannenhof in Weiterstadt. He wants to get his first asparagus this Wednesday and, like many other producers, expects a good year. ""With Easter, we will have an great asparagus harvest".
Asparagus in Rheinhessen and Pfalz have also arrived some two weeks earlier than last year, as Andreas Köhr from the farmers and winegrowers association Rheinland-Pfalz Süd says. Mid to late next week it will probably get going. Double-digit temperatures boosted the growth in past few days. Free-range asparagus has been harvested from film protected dams for several days in the Palatinate. In Dudenhofen, for example, around 100 kilos have been harvested since 15 March.
In Baden, the first asparagus spears from heated fields have been sold since the end of February. At the South Hessian mountain road the vegetables were already harvested from heated fields. They don't have these in Rhineland-Palatinate, said Kohr.
Expensive commodity
At the beginning of the season, the vegetables are still comparatively expensive: between 16 and 20 euros per kg in trading class I, say the producers. "It is our experience for prices to go down very fast with increasing supplies," said the managing director of the fruit and vegetable sales cooperative Nordbaden (OGA), Hans Lehar, in Bruchsal, northern Baden.
Hans Lehar of the OGA-OGV
According to Lehar, the storms of the past few days have caused considerable damage to mini-tunnels. This will delay the beginning of the harvests there. "There is no harvest failure, just some delay."
Cold stimulus
Due to the lack of harvest workers, many suppliers are now reducing their labor-intensive asparagus acreage. There are significantly fewer seasonal workers from the Eastern European EU states, said Lehar. "That is very clear."
The managing director will not give us a clear forecast for asparagus year 2019 . But to be sure: "When temperatures go and stay up, if the sun shines for several days, then thing will kick off relatively quickly." The asparagus plants have had their cold period over the winter months and when the sun starts shining, the heat will go through the film, filtering directly into the ground.
Pfalzmarkt: Larger quantities expected from late March
Producer group Pfalzmarkt also expects the first larger deliveries next week. "Due to the very good natural growth conditions, producers are telling us there will be a good asparagus year and we can count on top quality produce!"
However, the early start of the season does not only affect the asparagus, as the other vegetable specialties of the producer cooperative will be launched early this year. "We expect radishes, rhubarb, onions, as well as butterhead and leaf lettuce to arrive up to four weeks earlier in the trade than last year," says board member Hans-Jörg Friedrich
The stormy weather in recent days was also noticeable on the local asparagus plants. "The tunnels were affected by the strong wind, which caused enormous damage and also set us back," says vegetable farmer Berthold Clemens in Ober-Flörsheim der Welt.
Stronghold of the German asparagus industry
In Hesse, asparagus is harvested from around 2,000 hectares, of which approximately 1,700 hectares are located around Darmstadt. In Baden-Württemberg asparagus is cultivated mainly in the southern Rhine plain around Freiburg and in North Baden between Baden-Baden and Mannheim on an area of more than 2,200 hectares. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the vegetables grow mainly in the Vorderpfalz and in the districts of Alzey-Worms and Mayen-Koblenz on a total of more than 1,200 hectares.
The end of the asparagus harvest is on Saint John's Eve, the 24th of June, or shortly thereafter. According to the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food, per capita consumption is around 1.6 kilograms. According to statisticians, 129,600 tons per year are harvested in Germany. Of these, 10,800 in Hesse, 10,600 in Baden-Württemberg and 7600 in Rhineland-Palatinate. The numbers are from 2018.
For more information:
OGA NORDBADEN EG
Industriestr. 1-3
D-76646 Bruchsal
Telephone +49 7251 8002-0
Telefax +49 7251 8002-99
hans.lehar@oga-bruchsal.de
www.oga-bruchsal.de
Tannenhof Spargel und Beerenobst
Orfelder Rod 7a
64331 Weiterstadt
Tel: 06150 961384-0
Fax: 06150 961384-11
E-Mail: info@tannenhof-spargel.de
Internet: www.tannenhof-spargel.de
Pfalzmarkt für Obst und Gemüse eG
Neustadter Str. 100
67112 Mutterstadt
Telephone: 06231 / 408-0
Telefax: 06231 / 408-222
E-Mail: info@pfalzmarkt.de
Internet: www.pfalzmarkt.de
Berthold Clemens / Mathias Clemens Spargelanbau
Außerhalb 3
55234 Ober-Flörsheim
+49 6735 960170
+49 6735 960171