When there's an 'R' in the month the consumption of sauerkraut rises. The cheap vegetable has recently been named the superfood of 2015 and Gerrie Groot of Kramer en Zonen sees this reflected in the sales. "Besides fresh sauerkraut in the well known tubs, more and more sauerkraut is being sold in bags in all kinds of taste variations. The consumer is choosing sauerkraut more and more often. The better restaurants are also putting sauerkraut on their menu. Sauerkraut could also be found on a Dominos pizza, a McDonalds hamburger and the American hotdog." These applications show that sauerkraut is making advances not only in catering, but internationally: "Thanks to cultural cross contamination even the Taiwanese are eating hotdogs with sauerkraut. You can also see it in Spain, and of course in America where the German immigrants brought it along."
Unloading cabbage in the past
Besides the many applications, cabbage is growing out of the image of a winter vegetable: "Thanks to the recipes of 'Libelle' magazine for instance, sauerkraut is appearing more often as an alternative to grease on the barbecue." Despite these developments the sales still profit from a cold winter: "When the temperatures drop, the sales start."
Lively trade
Sauerkraut's base is cabbage and as far as that's concerned Gerrie speaks of a special season with quite high prices: "In August we had a new harvest of cabbage that went to the United Kingdom for 55 cents per kilo. "The smaller cabbages of around 2 kg won't become 6 kilos". Then France and Poland entered the market. Due to the dry summer and the dry spring the cabbage was small. The necessary rain came at the end of August and was so abundant that a lot of cabbage had its roots in water. Partially due to this we have just enough cabbage to meet our sauerkraut obligations. The loose white cabbage is hovering around 20 cents per kilo in a lively market."