Germany’s asparagus season officially ended on June 24, but too much rain and an early harvest have led farmers to label Spargelzeit 2024 as nothing more than “satisfactory”.
Spargelsaison has been and gone for another year in Germany, and according to the Landwirtschaftskammer (chamber of agriculture) in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the demand for asparagus was well matched with the amount harvested.
Across NRW - the German federal state where the majority of asparagus is grown as its largely flat landscape is ideal for production - 20.772 tonnes were harvested, 2,5 percent more than in 2023. But asparagus season didn’t yield everything farmers hoped for.
Speaking to the dpa, Ralf Große Dankbar from the Landwirtschaftskammer NRW explained, “It wasn’t always warm enough during asparagus season, which meant that the growth of asparagus plants was inhibited and there were between one and two stalks fewer per plant.”
Asparagus farmers in other regions have dubbed the season an average one. In Schleswig-Holstein the 2024 harvest was considered “satisfactory”, and "okay" in Thuringia.
While enough asparagus was harvested in 2024 to satisfy German palates, changing weather means the harvest timeline is shifting and ending earlier than its official June 24 deadline, a cut-off date which is based on giving the plants time to regenerate in conditions which were previously more predictable.
In 2024, heavy rain cast a shadow over the beginning of the season in some regions: “In northern Germany, we couldn’t finish our work in good time,” Fred Eickhorst, Leader of the Asparagus and Berry Farmers’ Association in Oldenburg told broadcaster NDR.
Wet weather led to machinery difficulties on the fields and protective sheets couldn’t be laid in time, meaning asparagus was ready earlier. “Generally speaking there was a shortage of asparagus [during the normal season] because we started so early,” said Eickhorst.
Another consequence was that an early harvest led some farms to pull out before the end of the harvest season leading to “the price on wholesale markets [rising] like we’ve never seen before,” said Eickhorst.
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