Lovers of early potatoes from the Pfalz should again not hope for a record harvest this year. "We expect the average harvest," Peter Schmidt, secretary of the growers association Pfälzer Grumbeere, said.
Starting with the average of the last four or five years it would be about 110.000 tons (2011: 111,700 tons). The consumer price is according to Schmidt at a comparable level with last year: about one Euro/kg. However, big differences in price between various points of sale are possible.
The harvest of the potatoes has already been going for a few weeks and will run to 10 August. According to Schmidt the frost is amongst other things responsible for the fact that an average harvest is expected. "We have, depending on the area, had six or seven nights with frost. As a result the plants are behind," he says. Also in between it was very dry. The fields would of course be irrigated, but natural rain is better. The growers themselves receive only 40 Euro/100 kgs. according to Schmidt. At the start of the season this was still 50 Euro/100 kgs.
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