Belgium: open field lettuce hit hard by hot weather

He indicates that two weeks ago they had one day with 36 degrees Celsius. "Leaves simply cannot handle temperatures exceeding 28/29 degrees. You can give as much water as you like, but they will most certainly fall flat. The leaves that hit the hot ground will burn in any case."

In addition to the loss and damage in lettuce, there is another point that falls short. "With a lower volume, the price often rises. Even that doesn’t happen at the moment. Prices are already down all season. There have been some exceptions, but the product has never been expensive. As a grower we have a lot of headaches, extra work and costs for the products, but it is not being refunded. Fortunately we still had water, but in some parts of Belgium the situation is even worse. In West Flanders there is even a ban on pumping water for irrigation. There all crops are lost and those growers are stuck completely. In Flanders the supply is way down. Still many growers do reach their number of kilos. Due to the warm weather and the water you have to give, the lettuce that is less affected by the heat, is now heavy enough to compensate for the lost heads."

Ortwin indicates that the price before the weekend was exceptional at 30 cents for a head, but in the meanwhile it has fallen to 17/18 cents. "Even the Roman lettuce was 30 cents on Friday, but in the meantime it also has went down substantially. There is also little interest in the other kinds of lettuce. In Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Germany, trade is extremely low. A bit more is going to France. This is because many people go to our neighbors on holiday. We send the lettuce after them."

Running a cultivation company is sometimes frustrating. "What strikes me is that the most beautiful lettuce often has the lowest value. If you grow beautiful lettuce, the conditions are often good and most growers also have many good quality products. Because of the large volume, prices are low. If the quality is poor and cultivation conditions were bad, this is often the same for the other growers as well. Then the volume is low and the price is often high because there is a big demand. A little edge damage or some pigeon damage does not make much difference for the customers. Growers must take many things into account and also anticipate the worst case scenarios."

The grower indicates that cultivation is also a matter of luck. "Often there are moments in the season where you can get a good price, but you never know exactly when that is. Sometimes that is at the beginning of the season if Spain stops earlier and the rest has not started yet. You cannot specifically control it, else we would of course do so." This year, it does not look good so far. "The season is not over yet, but there still has to be a good moment. Currently, it’s holiday season and many people have left. Sometimes it improves in August and autumn, so that’s what we hope for."