“Weather forced spinach back into greenhouses”

“The spinach and baby leaf market are currently fairly stable. We weren’t affected by the negative consequences of the warm weather, and we’ve had plenty of product to supply,” says grower Rik Vanackere. Yet he had to take measures during the warm and dry period. “Normally, the spinach is outdoors in this period, but it’s in the greenhouses now. Just like rocket and the mustard varieties. Outdoor, we mostly grew the different types of lettuce, such as green and red oak leaf lettuce. We had to use nearly all of our water reservoir of seven million litres.”

This year is the second year that the grower has French beans in their greenhouse. “In summer we have some room left over in our greenhouse, and we fill that with French beans. The warm weather had a big effect on the French beans. The setting was difficult, but they’re fully back in production now. Mid-September they’ll make room for mustard and different types of lettuce again,” Rik says. Because of the stagnating market, the company went looking for other varieties, and they ended up with Salanova. These are small heads of lettuce that are sliced for lettuce mixes. “It’s still too early to say whether it’s a popular product, but we think it’ll do well.”

The grower has had a good season. “There were a lot of problems on the lettuce market, because of diseases like fusarium. We feel positive about the current season, as well as about prices, which are currently normal for this time of year. We didn’t get much competition from countries such as Italy and Spain either. Yet we’ll experience some competition from Italy in winter, although we’ll manage. We’ll have to wait and see what’ll happen, but prospects are positive right now,” Rik concludes.