For many years, the Knoblauchsland in the Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen city triangle has been known for its vegetable growing, with greenhouse cultivation in particular having gained significantly in importance over the past three decades. The numerous innovative horticultural businesses have a strong marketing and service partner in Franken-Gemüse eG, through which the regional, southern German, and in some cases even the nationwide food retail sector is supplied. However, the ubiquitous topics of commercial horticulture do not bypass the Knoblauchsland region, as a local producer tour revealed.
Managing Director Florian Wolz
With Franken-Gemüse Knoblauchsland eG and its associated Franken-Gemüse Vertriebs eG, founded in 2022, as well as Franken-Gemüse Bio eG, the approximately 40 member companies have a strong, centralized marketing and service partner with deep roots in the region. In 2023, the turnover of Vertriebs eG amounted to an impressive 140 million euros, with over 95 percent of this coming from the German food retailing sector. According to managing director Florian Wolz, the cooperative model is still successful in principle: "Unfortunately, we are still too often reduced to being a trader. However, a trader only buys what he needs, while a cooperative sells what the producers can produce. In this respect, the two models are fundamentally different."
The Häring couple
What primarily distinguishes Franken-Gemüse eG is the comprehensive range of services offered to producers from a single source. "From certification to private label packaging. We work on behalf of the producers," says Wolz, who celebrated his 20th anniversary with the company in 2024. To remain competitive in the future, a brand-new, fresh produce warehouse is now being built opposite the current location, which is scheduled to open in the second half of the year. Wolz: "Our goal is to bring all our expertise together under one roof."
Virus pressure and energy crisis
The energy crisis has also hit greenhouse cultivation hard in the Knoblauchsland region, confirms Simon Höfler, who has been growing mini cucumbers under light since 2021. "However, the increased energy costs have had a significant impact here. As long as we have good yields and prices, we can absorb these additional costs to a certain extent, but we did not manage to do so in last year's season (2024). Admittedly, I wouldn't invest again in retrospect. When we invested in the lighting systems back then, gas prices were still relatively low, which is why the calculation was, of course, incomparable to the current situation," he says.
Willi Sippel also points out the effects of the energy crisis on planting schedules. "Until 2023, we always planted our tomatoes around calendar week 2, but due to the exponential rise in energy costs, we are currently only planting the crops in calendar week 4." Another factor that vegetable producers are confronted with is the Jordan virus. The virus pressure has led many producers to part with their proven varieties and to equip their facilities with new, resistant varieties last year. Sippel: "Unfortunately, we paid a high price in the first season after the changeover. There was a little of everything, from blossom end rot to bursting or undersized fruit. All in all, we had to accept a considerable loss, especially with the vine tomatoes (around three-quarters of the total tomato production), because we had a yield that was around 15-20 percent lower per square meter at the end of the year. To spread the risks a little, we planted a little less vine tomatoes this year and a little more of other tomato varieties instead. Fortunately, in addition to the one main variety, we also tested a few other HR vine tomato varieties last year, one of which produced quite good results. We then planted these on a larger scale this year."
Willi Sippel of the family business of the same name
The regional outbreak of the dreaded tomato virus (ToBRFV) also caused the Höfler company great concern. "Fortunately, we have been spared the Jordan virus so far. We have considered equipping our plants with new, resistant varieties. However, the problem is that there is still no reasonable alternative for oxheart tomatoes, which are among our most important tomato crops in terms of quantity. We also continue to rely on the proven varieties for our cherry and grape tomatoes due to a lack of alternatives. For vine tomatoes, we have already switched to HR varieties for the 2024 season, but yields are significantly lower than those of the tried and tested varieties," the tomato producer sums up.
Range expansion and specialization
Cucumbers, tomatoes, and sweet peppers are still among the most popular and most widely consumed greenhouse crops. However, the glasshouse horticulture businesses in the Franconian triangle are not afraid of innovation. For example, the Höfler family has been producing fresh ginger for five years now. Höfler: "After we had determined the marketing potential for regional ginger at the wholesale market, production was increased relatively quickly. However, it turned out that crop rotation is quite challenging, i.e., if the same area is planted several times, the yield drops noticeably. Of the original food retail customers who listed our products, unfortunately, only one remains, and they have significantly reduced their tonnage." This already led to a situation last year in which produce had to be disposed of in the end. "Accordingly, we have decided to reduce our cultivation capacity this year from around 0.7 to about half."
Vegetable gardener Simon Höfler
Other colleagues, on the other hand, rely on a few selected crops, such as the Ruff-Häring family. For three years now, the company has been growing radishes year-round. "We have now found a great market niche," says co-managing director Stefanie Häring. "Nevertheless, radish sales were relatively weak last winter, especially in food retailing. However, given the fact that we don't even have half the amount in winter that we do in summer, it was quite a good fit." The first advertising campaigns for radishes usually don't start until the beginning of the outdoor season in April, Häring continues.
This article was previously published in Primeur May 2025. Click here for the link to the entire edition
For more information:
Florian Wolz
Franken-Gemüse eG
Telefon: +49 (911) 93483-0
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.franken-gemuese.de
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