According to the Federal Statistical Office, 2,000 farms cultivated strawberries on a total of 12,500 hectares in 2021. At 130,630 tons, the 2021 strawberry harvest in Germany was 14 percent lower than in the previous year. This was due, on the one hand, to the decline in the yield area in the open field by around 5 percent to 10,643 hectares, and on the other hand, and above all, to the cool, rainy summer, which forced some growers to end the strawberry harvest in the open field prematurely.
Contrary to the trend, the number of farms growing strawberries increased again by almost 2.5 percent to 2,000 farms. However, this is only due to the special Corona year of 2020, in which fewer growers cultivated strawberries. Protected cultivation increased by just over 11 percent (188 hectares) to 1,857 hectares but was unable to offset the 546-hectare decline in open field yield area.
Protected cultivation on the rise
While 9.02 tons of strawberries per hectare were harvested in the open, the amount of strawberries harvested in protected cultivation was 18.62 tons per hectare, which is well over twice the amount.
Source: Destatis