Germany: More research for regional fruit
"With sales of over 6.7 billion Euro in the fruit and vegetable processing sector during 2013, cultivation of German fruit by her 7,455 companies is an important production factor and also creates valuable jobs in an otherwise structurally weak region." continues Eiden.
Consumers also put more value in fruit from their local region, particularly in sustainability and organic crops. Regional fruit represents freshness, short transportation an environmental friendliness and a crop of trustworthy origin. The question is quite considerable: according to recent calculations by the BLE, fruit consumption in Germany during 2012/13 (April/March) stood at 5.56 million tons, implying consumption of 67.8 kg fruit per person. To increase the present level of self sufficiency by 20.1%, it is necessary to strengthen German fruit production further.
However, cultivation of high quality fruit is very demanding. Many plant diseases, such as apple scabies, or root rot in strawberries can enormously affect the quality of the fruit and lead to major crop loss. Therefore the BLT are busy coordinating more than 100 research projects into developing and devising sustainable practical procedures for fruit cultivation and how to best manage plant diseases through pest prevention or treatment. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) are supporting this throughout 2014 by funding them with 4.5 million Euro.