A wet spring and a summer with a lot of heat and occasional periods of cool rain mean that the cucumber harvest in Lower Bavaria is moderately good. “Below average,” estimates Josef Apfelbeck, chairman of the regional association of Bavarian field vegetable growers. The late summer warm weather is currently causing larger quantities of cucumbers. The harvest traditionally ends at the end of September.
The season got off to a difficult start. As a rule, sowing is carried out between April 10th and 20th, which was not possible this year because of all the rain, says Apfelbeck and speaks of “borderline soil conditions”. The sowing only took place between May 5th and 10th. “I’ve never sown seeds so late before.” The rest of May was largely cool and wet before there was a five-week dry period. However, due to the late sowing, there are still no significant harvest quantities – because the harvest begins around 60 days after sowing. A cool, wet phase followed at the end of July before it became hot and dry again at the beginning of August. “The cucumbers have recovered.”
In September, the harvest volumes are now unusually large due to the sunny weather – and so are the cucumbers themselves – but the canning factories are no longer prepared for such volumes at this time of year. Inflation is creating a difficult market environment. Consumers are less likely to choose branded products in the supermarket than cheap products. The minimum wage puts an additional burden on cucumber growers. Today there are gherkins from Turkey or India, where production is cheaper.
The harvest workers in Lower Bavaria come primarily from Romania and Poland. There was no shortage of helpers. Overall, cucumber production is facing a change, according to Apfelbeck’s assessment. It is an orientation phase in which the farmers consider how things can proceed. He assumes that the cultivated areas will continue to shrink.
In recent years the area has already become smaller. Instead of 1,300 hectares, there are now around 900 hectares. This means that Lower Bavaria is still the largest, contiguous cucumber growing area in Europe. According to Apfelbeck, customers also include fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King.