The harvest of strawberries protected with foil will also start shortly after the holidays. After heavy losses in profits last year, asparagus and strawberry producers are now hoping for a good season. Nevertheless, farmers are facing major challenges. The minimum wage, which has risen to twelve euros, and general inflation are having a strong impact. Whether the higher operating costs can be passed on to the sales prices is uncertain. While some farmers fear an end to regional cultivation, others are focusing on more efficient work and production processes.

Customers have been reluctant recently

Klaus Langen from Kerpen is optimistic. Born in Bornheim, the 54-year-old also grows asparagus and strawberries there. He started cutting the first stalks two days ago, and the harvest of his red fruits from tunnel cultivation will start in the normal rotation at the beginning of May. After customers were reluctant to buy last year, the 54-year-old is now hoping for a better season. "Last year I burnt money. That only happens once or twice," says the family man.

For years, he has observed with great concern a growing disparity between production costs and sales price. This year, he adds, there will be an increase in the minimum wage. If this were to rise to 14 euros, he would no longer be competitive, warns the trained vegetable farmer, who also offers his products in the farm shop and at the weekly market, among other places. "If that is what is wanted, we will switch from cultivation to sales," says Langen.

It is still too cool and too wet for asparagus

At the Steiger vegetable farm in Waldorf, the harvest is still a long time coming. "It was too cold and too wet," reports senior boss Karl-Heinz Steiger. In 2017 he handed over his farm to daughter Margarete Ribbecke, but he is still out in the fields and greenhouses every day. There, the first stalks will be cut in mid-April at the earliest and thus about seven days later than in 2022. It will be a difficult year, says Steiger, whose farm grows 40 crops and sells them in the farm shop. "People have less money available and buy cheap, no matter where from," says the senior.

Prices for asparagus and strawberries are not yet fixed. However, Steiger says it is clear that the upcoming 20 per cent wage increase plus social security contributions for seasonal workers will be difficult to bear. If demand is low, areas may have to be shut down. He sees a bleak future for regional cultivation: "The forecast is that the cultivation of asparagus and strawberries will eventually cease."

Who will pay for the increased production costs?

Karl-Heinz Mandt from Alfter has so far only insulated, it was too wet to apply the film. This means that the asparagus and strawberry farmer is starting the season later than last year. The first stalks will be sold in the farm shop in 14 days at the earliest, the strawberries from the tunnels probably in mid-April: the blossoms are already open. Higher expenses for fertiliser, film and wages put pressure on the farmer. "We cannot pass on the costs completely to the customers. So we have to be prepared to work for less," explained Mandt, who runs the farm together with son Markus. What that means exactly for the prices on offer remains to be seen.

Swisttal farmer Johannes Heck is looking forward to a "normal" start of the season on 20 April. He, too, complains about higher operating costs, aggravated by cheap imports from abroad. "To cover the costs, asparagus has to become more expensive. The question is whether we can enforce this. If not, we will have to take areas out of production early," explains the 39-year-old.

There are also optimistic voices

Johannes Saß from Uedorf sounds less worried and looks forward to the season "like a child to Christmas". The preparations on his farm are complete: as soon as the temperatures rise, he will start harvesting from mini-tunnels with double cover next week. "We have unplanned peculiarities every year," the 40-year-old noted. In agriculture, he said, one can only respond to economic challenges in the long term.

To reduce costs, he said, one has to make work and production processes more efficient. For example, self-generated solar energy will reduce costs on his farm in the future. A harvesting machine called an "asparagus spider", purchased three years ago, is already improving work processes. "We need the right measures to counteract the costs," Saß emphasises.

Cultivation with trolleys has many advantages

Fruchthof Hensen in Swisttal-Mömerzheim has been successively implementing such measures since 2017. Ralf Hensen and his wife Irmgard have been cultivating strawberries exclusively for 35 years, and the first ones from the greenhouse go on sale in mid-April. The two have increasingly replaced open-air plots with cultivation in so-called racks, where the berries do not grow on the ground in the greenhouse but in raised planter boxes. This is easier on the backs of the harvesters, is less dependent on the weather and at the same time helps to increase the yield without consuming more land.

Nevertheless, it will be a difficult year for Hensen as well. Not only labour costs play a role, but above all the energy costs for the greenhouses. "Actually, the retail trade would have to pay six euros for a kilo of strawberries from the greenhouse. Whether that is feasible is the question," says Ralf Hensen. German farmers could not compete with producers abroad because labour costs there are much lower. The uncertain outlook for domestic cultivation gives Hensen pause for thought: "It would be bad if we were to become dependent on foreign countries for food in the future."

(Original text: Susanne Träupmann; Translation: Mareike Graepel)