Status: 02/27/2023 12:25 p.m
Significantly fewer vegetables were harvested last year than in 2021. This is mainly due to the hot and dry summer. In the UK, the shortage of vegetables is already visible on supermarket shelves.
Farms in Germany harvested 3.8 million tons of vegetables in 2022. The Federal Statistical Office reports that this is around twelve percent less than in 2021 and two percent less than the average for the years 2016 to 2021. The year 2021 is considered a record year: 4.3 million tons of vegetables were harvested back then.
Because of the heat and drought, the vegetable harvest this time was well below this record level. Another reason for the lower harvest is that there is less acreage available. At around 126,400 hectares, the area under vegetable cultivation last year was four percent smaller than in the previous year.
The carrot harvest shrank the most – it fell by 19 percent. The decline was 13 percent for onions and twelve percent for white cabbage. In the greenhouses, the tomato harvest remained at the previous year’s level, but the cucumber harvest fell by twelve percent and the pepper harvest by five percent.
Most vegetables are grown outdoors in Germany, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bavaria.
Supermarkets across the UK are currently struggling to keep up supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables. Supermarket chains have therefore set purchase restrictions.
Image: dpa
Strict vegetable limit in UK
Meanwhile, there is already a shortage of vegetables in supermarkets in Great Britain. The reason for the lack of tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers is the poor harvest in southern Europe and North Africa due to the weather. High energy costs in Britain and the Netherlands, where vegetables are grown in greenhouses, also play a role in the outage.
According to the government, the slack could last for up to a month. The Environment Minister Therese Coffey, who is also responsible for food, referred to local vegetables that fit the season in view of the shortage. “A lot of people would be eating beets right now and not necessarily thinking about lettuce and tomatoes,” she said.
The big retailers have set purchasing restrictions for vegetables: the market leader Tesco and Aldi have a strict limit on tomatoes and peppers for customers, the BBC reported.