Entwicklungen des Obstbaus in Deutschland von 2005 bis 2017: Obstarten, Anbauregionen, Betriebsstrukturen und Handel

In 2017, the German fruit production comprises about 11.000 farms cultivating fruits on around 76,000 hectares. It is divided into three sections: tree fruits (49,934 ha), soft fruits (6,838 ha) and strawberries (18,649 ha). This report provides a comprehensive overview of the development of the fruit production in major fruit producing regions in Germany and associated farm structures from 2006 to 2016/17. Additionally, a detailed characterization of fruit cultivation on the level of the federal states and at district level for the most important fruit crops is presented. In the period under review, the acreage of tree fruit cultivation initially declined slightly before it recovered 2017, according to the fruit tree census. In particular, the acreage of sour cherries has declined significantly between 2012 and 2017, while the area under sweet cherries has risen slightly between 2012 and 2017, after a decline in the previous period between 2007 and 2012. The cultivation of pears and plums has stabilized after a decline period between 2007 and 2012. With about 68% of the fruit tree area, apples are the major fruit crop cultivated in Germany. The area under apple cultivation has remained more or less constant over the past 12 years. In the same period, berry production has increased by around 44 %. This is mainly due to the increase in blueberry cultivation, but the total acreage of sea buckthorn, aronia berries, gooseberries, black-berries and elderberries has also increased. While the acreage of open field raspberry cultivation has decreased in size, protected raspberry production has increased significantly. Approximately one quarter of the berry fruit acreage is devoted to organic farming. In German crop statistics, strawberries are not summarized in the berry statistics but presented as a separate category. In the period under review, the area for strawberry cultivation varied from 17,500 ha in 2006 to around 16,000 ha in 2009 and then increased to a value of around 19,400 ha by 2013. Similar to raspberry production systems, protected strawberry production acreage is rising while open field cultivation area has declined between 2013 and 2016.