Lamb’s lettuce: a small, specialist market

A lot of attention in the lettuce segment nowadays is paid to high-tech production of lettuce on water and in vertical production systems. Because of all of these developments, you’d almost forget lamb’s lettuce is grown in Dutch and Belgian greenhouses. A relatively small production that profits from the trend among consumers for convenience products. Lamb’s lettuce grower Johan Vanackere-Degryse: “Consumers grab a bag of lamb’s lettuce more and more readily.”

In Westrozebeke, Belgium, Johan grows lamb’s lettuce under glass on an area of 1.6 hectares. Until 2014, he grew butterhead lettuce. High heating costs and decreasing demand for butterhead lettuce made him decide to switch to growing lamb’s lettuce. According to Johan, producing lamb’s lettuce is much simpler than producing butterhead lettuce. Johan: “The harvest is completely mechanical, so you don’t need additional staff. You no longer have to bend down constantly, the greenhouse doesn’t have to be heated, and besides, lamb’s lettuce hardly needs pesticides.”

Yet the production of lamb’s lettuce isn’t easy or cheap according to Aalt Baatje and Peter de Koning. Aalt has an area of 10 hectares, and he is one of the few Dutch lamb’s lettuce growers, while Peter takes care of sales on contract for Versland Selection. Peter: “Lamb’s lettuce is carefully cleaned using a so-called cleaning line after harvesting. The investment in such a cleaning line means lamb’s lettuce is a difficult production to get started in for small growers. While an increase can be seen on the consumer side of things, the market on the producer’s side, the grower, is mostly locked down.”

Both Aalt and Johan grow lamb’s lettuce year-round. Once sown, lamb’s lettuce is ready to harvest after about 90 days in winter, in summer it’s ready to harvest after about 30 days. Aalt: “The challenge is to have a constant lamb’s lettuce production year-round.” Twice per year, Aalt negotiates with Peter about contract prices and his supply. Because production is considerably slower in winter than in summer, prices are higher in winter. Aalt: “Production decreases in winter, but costs ignore that. This needs to be reflected in prices.” Peter: “Margins we work with have to be acceptable to both parties, but at the end of the year, neither one of us drives around in a Ferrari.”

Just like Aalt, Johan also supplies on contract. His sales are done via REO Veiling. According to Johan, 2018 has been a good year so far. Johan: “Production is stable and because sales are done via contracts, it’s most important to get as many kilograms as possible.” Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn is Johan’s largest buyer. Before the lamb’s lettuce ends up on the shelves of this supermarket, the lettuce is first cleaned, cut and packed by vegetable processor Koninklijke Vezet. Johan: “There’s hardly any day trading in summer. In winter, a fair amount is sent to REO Veiling.”

In the Netherlands, hardly any lamb’s lettuce is sold at auction anymore. This isn’t the only difference between the production of lamb’s lettuce in the Netherlands and Belgium. Peter: “It’s both lamb’s lettuce, yet it can hardly be compared to each other. Aalt harvests the lamb’s lettuce loose, in crates of five to six kilos, and that’s how we receive the lamb’s lettuce as well. It’s then cleaned. In Belgium, much of the lamb’s lettuce is placed in crates upright before being sent to the auction. That lamb’s lettuce is eventually also cut and packed in a lettuce mix or solo in a bag. These different ways of harvesting mean they’re two separate worlds” Aalt: “There are times when auctioning in Belgium becomes more interesting for us regarding prices, but because of the different harvesting methods I don’t have to show up at the Belgian auctions with my lamb’s lettuce.”

Johan is GlobalGAP certified and REO Veiling visits every month to analyse residues. The test samples are sent to the lab in Ghent, and only when results are good, can the harvest be started. When results are bad, the harvest has to be destroyed. Johan: “Fortunately that hasn’t ever happened in four years. In any case, I don’t know any growers where this actually happened. With ten to 15 per cent, I always remain below the MRL limit.”

Since 2016, Aalt has produced in line with the requirements of Milieukeur (which changed its name to On the Way to PlanetProof this spring). Aalt: “Because of this, I grow my lamb’s lettuce 40 per cent cleaner than the legal MRL standard, and am therefore close to growing organically. I can do hardly anything when I have production problems, so everything has to be just right. Consumers want clean product after all, both inside and out.” Peter: “With lamb’s lettuce, it’s either good or not. You can’t correct things. If a leaf snaps, it’s over. There’s no room on the market for a product of slightly lower quality.”

Competition can be found in, among other places, the French region around Nantes, the cradle of lamb’s lettuce production, where Johan has seen production in plastic tunnels increasing. The open air production, on the other hand, is clearly decreasing, because growers want to be save from weather influences more and more. Johan: “Our buyers also buy their lamb’s lettuce in France, to cover the risk of a failed harvest.” Vertical farming and the production on water aren’t direct threats for the production of lamb’s lettuce according to Johan. “I think the production of lamb’s lettuce is cheap enough to make production on water unprofitable.”