Bavarian asparagus farmers disappointed: Hardly any demand in retail - how does that affect prices?
Created: 05/30/2022, 12:29 p.m
By: Theresa Kuchler
The asparagus farmers in Bavaria are selling significantly less of their precious vegetables than usual this year.
© Wolfgang Maria Weber/imago/icon picture
Bavarian asparagus is popular - usually.
The 2022 season is sobering for many farmers.
Low demand causes prices to drop.
Munich - June 24th is traditionally the date on which the asparagus season ends.
By then, the vegetables have been harvested and sold for a good two months, and there is usually a high demand for them.
After all, asparagus is popular with the Germans.
For this year, however, the Bavarian asparagus farmers have to draw a sobering balance.
Three asparagus regions dominate in Bavaria.
The asparagus from Schrobenhausen in Upper Bavaria is probably the best known.
But the Abensberger asparagus from Lower Bavaria and Franconian asparagus also find many buyers throughout Germany year after year.
In fact, hardly any other vegetable is grown in Bavaria as much as the green and white spears: At around 3000 hectares, asparagus even takes up more space than onions or pickled cucumbers.
Asparagus in Bavaria: Hardly any demand in retail - farmers disappointed
Despite the bestseller, the Bavarian asparagus farmers are disappointed this year: Overall, sales in April and May 2022 are likely to be a good 10 to 15 percent behind an average year.
This is reported
by hallo-muenchen.de
and quotes Claudia Westner, chairwoman of the asparagus product association in Schrobenhausen.
When a vegetable is underperforming, it is usually due to too much or too little rain or other environmental factors damaging the crop.
As Westner says, the lower asparagus sales are not due to the weather.
There is simply a lack of demand, especially in retail.
The farmers can therefore simply charge less for their product.
Reluctance to buy asparagus: an expert has a plausible explanation
For Miriam Adel, the chairman of the asparagus product association in Schrobenhausen, there is a plausible explanation for the low demand: because the cost of living has risen everywhere, people have become more economical.
When shopping, people would do without asparagus, which is after all the most expensive local vegetable.
According to Adel, the farmers in Franconia may have sold between 10 and 20 percent less asparagus than usual. Of course, this has an effect on prices.
When the asparagus season began in March, the vegetables cost even more than in 2021. At the beginning of the year, due to the price increases caused by the Ukraine war, it was generally assumed that the prices for the precious vegetables would also rise.
The asparagus farmers are accordingly optimistic that 2022 will be a strong year for sales.
"We were well prepared, the weather was good, the helpers were there," said Adel
hallo-muenchen.de.
But then demand fell, and with it the prices - until they were temporarily below the previous year's level.
Good for consumers, bad for businesses.
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Asparagus sales in Bavaria: farmers are disappointed
People in Abensberg in the Kelheim district in Lower Bavaria are also disappointed with this year's season.
"Of course it's frustrating when you have such a good product as this year, and fewer people buy it," Petra Högl told Bayerischer Rundfunk.
She is the chair of the producer group there and reveals how drastic the losses for the farmers are: According to her, some farms have sold 30 percent less asparagus than usual.
(kuc)
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