Since Monday 23 May, the price for lettuce has completely collapsed. From March, the price has been good for cultivators, but the decrease started last week. “The past few months have been cold for quite a long period. This was the cause for less supply and higher prices. At the start of last week we were at 36 cents. On Saturday they were 22 cents. Yesterday, they reached 12 cents, and they are 11 cents today,” explains cultivator Johan Bytebier from Nazareth, Belgium.
Butterhead lettuce stood out
Bytebier indicates that is was remarkable that greenhouse lettuce had good prices in the past few months. “Products did not grow fast because of the colder weather, and leafy vegetables profited from that. During a certain period prices were even higher than those of alternative lettuce, even though that hardly ever happens. Butterhead lettuce stood out this spring. I think this was also partly due to fewer plants and more demand from the south.”
Bytebier stops cultivating lettuce
Johan Bytebier has had an area of 2.4 hectares of lettuce since 2000, and he supplies his products to BelOrta. This year he will stop cultivating lettuce. “I started growing lettuce sixteen years ago, and I have experienced good years and bad years. Due to several circumstances I have decided to quit. Our company was taken over by a different cultivator, who will produce soft fruit.” According to Bytebier it is becoming more difficult to survive in horticulture. “It is all very insecure, you never have firm prices and a lot of stress is involved. Besides, competition is increasing, both domestically and internationally. Producers are going to produce more volume and many horticultural companies have become factories. It saddens me, but I have made up my mind. I will plant my final lettuce mid-June, and this will be harvested in July.”