Sunny summer delivers strong cucumber harvest in Estonia

Estonian cucumber growers have had a successful season, with 1.3 million locally grown cucumbers expected to be preserved in jars, ERR reported.

The sunny summer brought a good harvest in southern Estonia, although growers had to heat their greenhouses in spring and water them frequently during hot summer days.

“We grow greenhouse cucumbers, which still need heating because cucumbers do not grow below 15 degrees. Since we heated the greenhouses, we achieved a fairly good harvest,” said Kaire Roositalu, owner of Joosepi farm.

Despite rising prices, Estonian consumers continue to prefer domestic cucumbers. “The profitability gets smaller every year. Prices rise, but so do the costs of heating, plant protection products, seeds, peat and everything else,” said Ertti Viilu, a representative of Matu farm.

The pickling season will end in about two weeks. Salvest, a food factory, will put 1.3 million cucumbers into jars this year. Because the harvest was good, the factory will use more Estonian cucumbers than last year, reducing the need to bring in produce from southern Europe.

“The clear advantage of Estonian raw materials is that cucumbers picked one day can, on a large scale, be put into jars the next day. That is a very good indicator in terms of quality,” said Salvest chief executive Jaanus Aal.

The cucumbers are preserved with ingredients including dill, of which the factory will use five tonnes this year. The cucumber season at processing plants runs from July to the end of August, with produce picked in the morning reaching the jars by the end of the day. From September, the factory lines will be used for autumn vegetables.