German strawberry harvesting starts second half of June

The German strawberry harvest later than in other years. It is expected to start in the second half of June. This is three weeks later than last year. The first strawberries were ripe last week-end. These are the strawberries covered by plastic to stimulate growth.

The fresh strawberries from Lower Saxony will be available till the end of September. Harvesting takes three to four weeks. In Germany about 13,000HA of strawberries are grown annually. Slightly less than a quarter are grown in Lower Saxony in South Oldenburg. In Germany about 230,000 tons of strawberries are consumed annually, of which more than half (130,000 tons) is grown in Germany.The remainder is mainly imported from Spain.