This year, Pfalzmarkt für Obst und Gemüse eG is starting the domestic apple harvest particularly early. In view of the very good fruit set and the challenging weather conditions so far this season, Pfalzmarkt growers - who specialise in apple and fruit cultivation - are expecting a good apple harvest. Customers from the food retail trade and consumers throughout Germany should be pleased that the Palatinate - as a particularly early favourable location for domestic apple and fruit cultivation - will once again be able to fully exploit its traditional harvest advantage over other growing regions this year.
While the first, very early varieties have already been harvested in small quantities for farm sales and weekly markets since the beginning of July, "things are slowly getting serious for commercial cultivation at the end of July", as Manuel Gensheimer, Pfalzmarkt producer from Steinweiler, explains: "With Delbarestivale and then Elstar, Pfalzmarkt eG will deliver the first market-relevant varieties for the food retail trade some seven to ten days earlier." The reasons for the earliness and - much more importantly - for the top qualities that the Palatinate traditionally offers in apple cultivation lie in the mild climate and the top know-how of the producers specialising in fruit.
With Delbarestivale and subsequently Elstar and Gala (pictured), the first varieties will soon be harvested in market-relevant quantities.
As fruit growing is very much concentrated in the Southern Palatinate, Pfalzmarkt eG - as one of the market leaders for fresh fruit and vegetables - traditionally has a specialised location here: Hatzenbühl is also home to the apple sorting machines, which ensure fast packaging and super-fast despatch according to customer requirements. When looking at the short distances from the apple tree via the food retailer, weekly market or specialist fruit retailer to the nationwide consumer, it becomes clear that apples from the centrally and conveniently located Palatinate - compared to fruit from South Tyrol, New Zealand, Argentina or South Africa - can ripen much longer on the tree and therefore score the decisive plus points in terms of flavour and sustainability and carbon footprint.
Top 5 varieties account for more than two thirds of apple sales
In the Palatinate, the market-relevant apple varieties Elstar, Gala, Jonagold, Braeburn and Delicious are gradually being harvested, which this year is expected to run from the beginning of July until October. In 2023, these top 5 varieties accounted for just over two thirds of apple sales, totalling around 925,000 euros. However, it should be noted that the 2023 harvest volume of 1,419 tonnes was significantly lower than in the two previous years of 1,926 tonnes (2021) and 1,713 tonnes (2022). It is currently not possible to predict whether Pfalzmarkt eG will achieve the previous year's harvest volume and turnover.
Manuel Gensheimer and Gerd Pfaffmann expect a good apple season.
High costs dampen producers' euphoria and make forecasts difficult
Positive signs for the rest of the apple harvest season are that the area under cultivation at Pfalzmarkt eG and its co-operation partner Vereinigte Obst- und Gemüsegroßmärkte (VOG) Weisenheim is around 100 hectares and the number of 18 apple producers is at the same level as last year. Whether it will be a good apple year for fruit growers in the Palatinate does not depend solely on the weather. In view of the minimum wage increases and the persistently high prices for fertilisers and other inputs, domestic fruit producers are under very high cost pressure. When asked how he hopes the season will progress, Pfalzmarkt member Gerd Walter Pfaffmann from Impflingen says: "A good apple year is when customer demand and supply are as congruent as possible and the trade honours our efforts and switches to flavoured fruit from the Palatinate immediately after the start of the harvest of the top varieties."
What makes apples from the Palatinate special is the above-average number of hours of sunshine in the climatically favoured south-west. The focus in marketing is on the fresh consumption of the coveted flavoured fruit! Gerd Walter Pfaffmann continues: "With apples, the variety determines the basic flavour. The sun is responsible for the actual flavour. And we still have more than enough of it - even in a rather mixed growing year."
For more information:
www.pfalzmarkt.de