Market and harvest reports

Climate change is impacting us more than we could imagine…

Besides the human impact, the Ukraine war was generating huge stress on agricultural activities for the season 2022-2023. Farmers did wonder if they would be able to afford purchasing fuel or fertilizers (or even get the needed volume). They were right to worry about prices, but this was unfortunately not the main concern of 2022.

2022 is maybe a key year in which farmers and agronomists really realized that, from now on, climate change is providing a structural change in the agriculture.

Never before the weather has had such an extensive impact on our crops throughout Europe. From Spain to Denmark, and from Brittany to Austria: the average yields were far below normal. Whether it is about peppers, peas, spinach, sweet corn, carrots, green beans, brussels sprouts, parsley, chives… all crops were severely affected

That is a real concern for Ardo, for our farmers, for our customers, and it should be for all. Climate will continue to change faster and faster, and we should worry about our ability to feed an increasing population in this context.

Autumn & Winter crops

In the North, after a very dry and hot summer, plants presented a huge delay. It is only in September that root crops started to grow in the soil, cauliflowers got mature with a huge heterogeneity, and a delay of more than one month. This is the same for most of the other crops (Brussels sprouts, leeks…). The smooth autumn conditions permitted to harvest quite smoothly until the end of November, but unfortunately, a killing frost stopped everything on the mid of December and many of the not yet harvested crops had to be destroyed, like cauliflowers and carrots.

In the Iberian Peninsula, the situation was contrasted between East (Castilla la Mancha) and West (Extremadura, Portugal). We could reach a correct production of winter broccoli and the peas sowing activities happened almost according to the plan in the East. Whilst in the West, the weather passed from extreme drought to extremely wet, with floods destroying broccoli fields and making sowing of peas and broad beans fields impossible.

Challenging times

The next years will be a challenge. Stocks will be empty, reference yields are again lower, meaning that we should contract more surfaces, which is the same for other food industries (like potatoes, sugar, etc.). Also, farmers are attracted by the prices and relative yield stability of cereals.

Despites price increases, Ardo, as well as the whole vegetable and herbs sector, will be missing surface in 2023…

To tackle the facing challenges of today, Ardo will pay up to 20% and for some crops even 40% more to the farmers, and, on top of that, we aim to increase the number of irrigated fields to reduce the impact of climate change.

Welcome to the team! Ardo is delighted to welcome Alex Ching, Culinary Adviser at Ardo Netherlands. He will focus on turning Ardo‘s wide range into creative recipes and welcomes any questions you may have.

Internorga, Hamburg (DE) 10/03 – 14/03

Hall A4, stand 217

Horecatel, Marche-en-Famenne (BE) 12/03 – 15/03

Hall 2, stand E17

CFIA, Rennes (FR) 14/03 – 16/03

Hall 4, stand A36

Anufood, São Paolo (BR) 11/04 – 12/04

Stand B250

PLMA, Amsterdam (NL) 23/05 – 24/05