Chokeberry harvest in Saxony: good quality and oversupply

After a break of several days due to rainy weather, it's final spurt for the harvest in Saxony's chokeberry fields. "About a third of the berries are still hanging on the bushes," Jörg Holzmüller, managing director of Aronia Original Dresden, told the German Press Agency on Thursday. They would be taken down in the next few days. He said expectations for the yield are good, "the quality is exceptional." Holzmüller expects a quantity of 450 to 500 tons, a multiple of last year. "The rain wasn't bad for the berries, they didn't continue to ripen." But the quality would have suffered if they were harvested in the wet.

Sunny, warm periods and rain, the conditions for the berries were optimal this summer and they grew well, he said. Holzmüller therefore expects a normal good harvest in terms of quantity, with "exceptional" quality thanks to moderate temperatures and sufficient rainfall. 2023 would be there "an exceptional year" similar to the super season 2012. The harvest had begun two weeks ago and had been suspended last Sunday.

The fruit variety known as black chokeberry, which belongs to the rose family, is grown in the Free State on just under 171 hectares. It is the second-largest area in Germany after Brandenburg, said Holzmüller, whose company sources fruit from both states for processing. About 70 tons were harvested in Saxony in 2022, following a record year in 2021 when up to 1,000 tons were harvested. "A worse season after a good year is normal." The plants would need longer than twelve months to recover completely, because the soil is sucked out at three times the harvest amount.

There is, however, an oversupply of chokeberry berries, the market is flooded by cheap goods from Poland and Ukraine, Holzmüller reported. Because of EU subsidies, cultivation of the fruit has increased, he said, but because of minimum wages and high energy prices, German farmers are not competitive. "Many don't harvest at all because it would be loss-making for them, a huge problem." Supply exceeds domestic demand, he said. "I've already had 30 calls from farmers to please buy their berries."

The dark purple fruits are said to have health-promoting and antiviral effects, and are rich in vitamins A, C and K. There are clear indications of a reduced cold frequency, if regularly with already small quantity Aroniasaft gargled and this a while in the mouth remained, said the physician Bernhard Uehleke, active in the naturopathy. Because of their rather sour raw taste Aronia berries come rather processed on the table, above all as juice - or dried in the breakfast cereal.