Last year, swedes were voted Vegetables of the Year: After a fairly good harvest, yields again fell back slightly in 2018-2019, but current prices are significantly higher those of the previous year, says Florian Jochims of the vegetable growing and trading company of the same name.
Lower yields, better prices
One of the difficult weather conditions that hit the whole of Europe this year has seen swede sales drop about 20 percent compared to last year's levels, according to Jochims. "That is why prices have seen an increase of about 15-20 percent compared to last year. The quality of the product is generally average to satisfactory."
"Although this year's market for swedes is not too exciting, there are some interesting trends across the product segment, says Jochims. "Up to a few years ago, in the north of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, they wanted to have large sizes, weighing between 1.5 and 2 kg. Farther south, on the other hand, the main focus was on smaller products."
Due to smaller packages -on the shelves of Rewe shops, for example- in recent years demand tends to focus on smaller sizes. The packaging is also an interesting topic for producers or suppliers: "On the one hand, the smaller sizes mean that we can package more swedes in one box, which means less costs. On the other hand, increasingly 15 kg crates are used instead of 5 or 6 kg crates. So it's not so much the size of the vegetable itself, but the size of the packaging."
Celery
Besides swedes, the dedicated farmer grows celery on his 90 hectares. In this product segment, the market situation has been quite stable so far as well, with an average harvest and constant, usual prices. "Celery, however, is a year-round product, which always becomes somewhat scarcer in the period from March-April. If sufficient supply coming from Holland is not available by then, the prices per kilo could certainly rise to 0.60-0.70 euros. But at this moment, I can not yet speculate whether this will be the case."
Just as with the turnips, celery is not a trend product, but a commonplace product. Accordingly, a significant reduction in sales was predicted 10-20 years ago. However, the demand is currently unchanged from year to year, confirms Jochims. "With us, sales are always consistent or slightly increasing. Celery is needed for soup or salad: the bottom line is that its consumption remains very much stable."
Once a year, at Christmas, there is a very definite increase in sales of celery. After this period, the market stabilizes again and more usual volumes of demand will return. "Because of the fact that celery grows faster in the southern German growing areas, there, these products can not be stored properly, unlike with us. Accordingly, we will buy more of the southern German crops and have a lot more sales than usual."
