Benoît Musset, producer for Océane, started harvesting his greenhouse eggplants at the beginning of February, which is 4 months earlier than last year. “During the previous season, the harvest started at the beginning of June. However, from February until May, 90% of the eggplants are imported. We wanted to be able to harvest earlier to meet our clients’ demand for French products and to have more volumes from April to May.”
Production volumes multiplied by three
The harvest of the greenhouse eggplants will precede that of the eggplants grown in cold shelters, which should start at the end of May.
“We grow 8,500 m² of eggplants in greenhouses and 4 hectares in cold shelters. This year, we plan to put 1,200 tons of eggplants on the market, which is three times the volumes obtained last year.” 80% of these eggplants are sold to supermarkets, and the rest goes to wholesale networks.
Eggplants are sensitive to pests
Eggplant crops are very sensitive to pests. Benoît Musset pays particular attention to this on his farm. “The eggplants are very exposed to aphids, whiteflies, and bugs. It is therefore important that our employees report everything and we work with our integrated pest management employers to find the best technical solution to protect our crops efficiently.”
30% increase in production costs
Like other fruit and vegetable crops at the moment, the eggplant is not immune to the rise in production costs. “The rising cost of energy, packaging and labor all have a significant impact on production costs, which have increased by 30%. Faced with this reality, higher selling prices for the eggplants are necessary to maintain the French production.”
For more information:
Anthony Adelis
Océane
Phone: +33 (0)2 51 72 93 75
http://www.oceane.tm.fr
