To mark the official start of the fresh vegetable season, Pfalzmarkt für Obst und Gemüse eG is once again offering its full spring selection of locally grown produce—including sugar-sweet strawberries, crisp lettuce and leafy greens, crunchy kohlrabi, asparagus, rhubarb, and more. The actual start of the harvest in this still-young season came a bit earlier than last year: as early as the beginning of March, the first March spring onions were harvested in Germany's largest and earliest contiguous open-field cultivation area for fresh vegetables.
© Pfalzmarkt eG
Since orders at Pfalzmarkt eG are always harvested and packaged daily and delivered hourly around the clock to wholesale markets and food retailers nationwide, consumers across Germany benefit from invaluable advantages in terms of freshness, quality, and sustainability when they choose "Erntefrisch aus der Pfalz": Thanks to their specialization and the natural early harvest—due to the sheltered location and mild climate in the southwest—the 80 active Pfalzmarkt producers make an important contribution to Germany's secure and price-stable supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Satisfactory annual balance sheet given the market situation
As in the previous year, 230,000 tons of fruit and vegetables were marketed via the Pfalzmarkt eG trading platform in 2025. Due to producer prices in 2025 that were unsatisfactory for domestic fruit and vegetable cultivation, the Pfalzmarkt Group's revenue of 300 million euros was significantly lower than in the previous period (2024: 322 million euros). The number of employees at Pfalzmarkt eG rose to 230 from 205 in 2024. The number of Pfalzmarkt producers, however, decreased from 90 to 80. Pfalzmarkt CEO Hans-Jörg Friedrich: "While our cooperative is more broadly positioned with 100 fresh products across the season and, for example, our service business, the annual results for many producer operations were disastrous. Extreme cost increases in the minimum wage and operating resources on the one hand, coupled with—at best—stable producer prices, led to operating losses across the board. A year like this must not be repeated!"
Call to action for politicians
As one of the market leaders for fruit and vegetables grown in Germany, the management team at Pfalzmarkt eG is therefore now setting out key demands: "For years, politicians have been depriving us and our member farms of the capital we need for Agriculture 4.0! Politicians must finally show their true colors: Is the security of supply with fresh fruits and vegetables really a priority!? If we want to preserve domestic fruit and vegetable cultivation in Germany—as a guarantee of top freshness and supply security with extremely short supply chains from the field to the point of sale and on to consumers nationwide—action must be taken now!"
In terms of quality, freshness, and security of supply, German fruits and vegetables should be particularly valued, and domestic cultivation should be supported and promoted. Politically, however, the exact opposite has been happening for years. A current example is the legally mandated increase of the minimum wage from 12.82 EUR to 13.90 EUR as of January 1, 2026. This applies without exception to seasonal workers from other European countries who work in Germany for only a few weeks a year and therefore receive their gross wages as net pay. Added to this are overregulation and documentation requirements that further exacerbate the unequal competitive conditions within the EU, harming small and medium-sized fruit and vegetable growers in the Palatinate.
Wage increases of 50 per cent in five years
Christian Deyerling, chairman of the supervisory board at Pfalzmarkt eG, asks, "What sector can withstand wage increases of around 50 per cent in five years? For the automotive, chemical, or mechanical engineering sectors, there would have been crisis summits and economic stimulus programs! Yet this is expected of the fruit and vegetable sector. Apparently, healthy eating and local cultivation are not considered important enough as competitors or price regulators. If policymakers do not act quickly, Germany will become just as dependent on imports and crisis-prone supply chains here as it already is with oil and gas. Then no decision-maker should be surprised by higher prices!"
Robotics and AI in combination with drones, smart spraying, or in-row hoeing
Already today, many vegetable farms in the Palatinate are relying on robotics and AI solutions to gradually reduce the human factor and hard labor in the fields in the coming years. For example, since last year, Pfalzmarkt eG, in partnership with the Beregnungsverband Vorderpfalz, has been using smart field sensors that can not only measure soil moisture at depths of up to 40 cm but also provide real-time data for digital crop protection via AI control.
The use of drones, smart precision sprayers for selective crop protection in conventional and organic farming, highly efficient in-row hoes or laser weeders for weed control, self-driving systems, or digital spades for real-time soil analysis have long been a reality and are no longer a utopian vision of the future. Hans-Jörg Friedrich: "We have solutions for fruit and vegetable farming 4.0. To make these high-tech applications practical, it is necessary to efficiently connect interfaces and different data sources. Here we need additional development, more capital—which is currently unavailable—and ultimately a framework to efficiently test the new technologies!"
Government overregulation also prevents the trial use of technology
To maintain competition and thus reasonable consumer prices, domestic cultivation—which scores points with fast processing and delivery times, top freshness, and consequently also in terms of carbon footprint and sustainability—is indispensable. The situation becomes utterly absurd because the deployment and testing of self-driving harvesting robots and AI-controlled drone flights in the field often fail due to regulations that unnecessarily slow down progress.
The comprehensive sustainability strategy pursued by Pfalzmarkt eG—among others—in the areas of fruit and vegetable cultivation, renewable energy generation, and species conservation lays an important foundation for sustainable, healthy growth. The central and sustainable hub for excellent fresh produce logistics is Hall 4 at Pfalzmarkt eG, where the official kickoff for the 2026 fresh vegetable season will take place. It ranks among the largest and most modern marketing centers for fresh fruits and vegetables in Europe. Thanks to optimized product flows, Pfalzmarkt eG sets industry standards here. With smart cultivation and harvest planning, the 80 active producer farms can harvest to order several times a day—even on very short notice—and thus flexibly meet the retail sector's demand requirements.
Greater sustainability in the areas of cultivation, energy, and species conservation
Hans-Jörg Friedrich, board member at Pfalzmarkt eG: "This year, we will invest around 2.5 million euros in a smart battery storage solution that will allow us in the future to use the solar power from our 15,000 m² rooftop PV system on Hall 4 even more efficiently—primarily at night and during periods of bad weather." Through various measures, the "Pfalzmarkt schafft Artenvielfalt" project—which covers nine hectares this season—aims to safeguard and promote biodiversity in the Pfalz vegetable garden.
© Pfalzmarkt eG
Internationalization: Optimal freshness now available even during the winter months
To reliably supply Pfalzmarkt customers with top-selling items from its product portfolio beyond the actual harvest season in the Palatinate—including during the winter months—Pfalzmarkt eG has specifically expanded its 12-month strategy, established over countless years, and steadily continued its internationalization. In 2025, the first producer from Portugal was accepted as a Pfalzmarkt member.
Special vegetable bestsellers
Pfalzmarkt eG offers over 100 different fresh products with more than 15,000 different product variants. Pfalzmarkt's Chief Sales Officer Reinhard Oerther explains, "In terms of customer demand and sales weighting of bestsellers at Pfalzmarkt eG, there are some interesting trends in 2025: Pak choi, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, and Hokkaido pumpkins are very popular with shoppers."
For more information:
www.pfalzmarkt.de
