Pfalzmarkt eG is keeping the study course in tough instances, displaying that fruit and vegetable production in the Palatinate can be relied on. For several many years now, there has been a drop in desire for lettuce, but this product will not vanish completely from German markets, states Pfalzmarkt CEO Hans-Jörg Friedrich. At the begin of the new refreshing vegetable period, Friedrich spoke with us about the relevance of producer cooperatives, new merchandise in the Pfalzmarkt portfolio, and recent troubles in the industry, among other subject areas.
Board member Hans-Jörg Friedrich: “The natural share at Pfalzmarkt is concerning 3-4% and will not maximize for the time being, as the conversion to natural output is at present economically difficult for some growers.”
Tricky periods for bunched vegetables
“Lettuce will retain Its value. On the other hand, it is no longer the mass solution it was prior to, as decide-and-spot as perfectly as colourful lettuces have been sharing the market place much more for some time,” Friedrich suggests.
Having said that, there is undoubtedly a hazard that significantly labor-intense bunched products and solutions, this kind of as carrots, spring onions and radishes, could significantly vanish from the sector, he adds. “If we have to function with a bare minimum wage of 12.00 euros for these products and solutions, that will not likely be probable. The cost of radishes, for example, would have to be lifted so much that buyers would likely no for a longer period want to buy them. In this article, there is also the problem of whether we could persuade stores to harvest these items by equipment and supply them for sale without having foliage. Spring onions in convert, would have to be offered in bulk.”
Far more frost-resistant kiwifruit
In addition to puntarelle and Bimi broccoli, the Palatine Market place has also been committed to hydroponic cultivation, or the generation of root lettuces, for which a greenhouse has also been obtainable considering the fact that very last yr. “The generation of tricolor lettuces experienced to be readjusted to some degree in the expanded trial cultivation, as the green lettuces are more vigorous than the pink lettuces in the tricolor group,” suggests Friedrich.
But the growers’ cooperative is also continuing to establish in the fruit sector: “With the growing temperatures, we will in foreseeable future also turn our notice to the cultivation of kiwifruit, amongst other factors, in the ‘vegetable back garden of Germany’. We are also working on types that are much more frost-resistant in winter. Income of the soybean plant edamame have also received off to a fantastic begin. For vegans in certain, this solution is a good meat substitute.”
Higher demand from customers for greenhouses
Friedrich suspects that greenhouse cultivation will raise in Germany: “We listen to and go through that far more and much more greenhouses are being planned. Following the effective demo cultivation in the discipline of hydroponics, we have also been doing work on the organizing of an expanded greenhouse principle for two many years now. Geothermal spots in certain are being sought in this regard. Mainly because the power situation is the all-critical thing at the moment.”
In the new advertising corridor of the Pfalzmarkt, he mentioned, they will also switch to photovoltaics, which will assure self-sufficiency and, accordingly, no extended call for electric power from outdoors. “What is staying talked about almost everywhere at the second is agri-photovoltaics. But for this you would have to put up a type of stand forest in the center of the arable land, which is unlikely to capture on simply because it is just also high-priced. Nonetheless, some fruit farmers are thinking about supplying the agri-photovoltaic program by using the fruit trees, which would also provide fantastic hail defense by the method,” says Friedrich. The only thing that is even now getting researched intensively, he suggests, is the extent to which shading the trees from above will impact the ripening of the apple and, earlier mentioned all, its coloration.
Worth of grower cooperatives
“Overall, producer cooperatives have a share of about 34% in Germany. This means that about a third of the merchandise are dispersed by producer cooperatives and the rest arrive from impartial growers,” says Friedrich. “As a producer cooperative, we can acquire numerous jobs off the producers’ palms so that they can just acquire treatment of their generation. The sum of documentation that has to be done these times, in particular in the place of top quality assurance, is enormous. The bundling functionality of cooperatives is notably critical today.”
For a lot more facts:
Hans-Jörg Friedrich
Pfalzmarkt für Obst und Gemüse eG
Neustadter Str. 100
67112 Mutterstadt
facts@pfalzmarkt.de
www.pfalzmarkt.de
