Wet fields complicate Latvian pumpkin harvest despite good yields

Excessive moisture made it difficult for Latvian pumpkin growers to harvest their crops this year, but they describe the yields as good. Demand for locally grown pumpkins remains high, though producers face rising costs and competition from imports, LSM reports.

At Kliblapsas, a farm in Pure parish, Tukums municipality, boxes of orange, green, bluish and speckled pumpkins fill the storage space. The farm grows Halloween pumpkins as well as butter, nut and muscat varieties.

Owner Ilze Venterzute said the harvest was good, but saturated fields made parts of it hard to reach. Some pumpkins were damaged after remaining in wet conditions for a long time, which also affected their appearance and storage.

“The pumpkins were wet and cold all the time,” Venterzute said. “Some that had set fought to survive; those that drowned, drowned. But, of course, it is not as bad as it could have been. There were places this year where there was really nothing to cut, but 50 metres further along the row there could be an abundance.”

The farm harvested about 500 tonnes this year, compared with more than 700 tonnes in good years. Venterzute said pumpkins grow best when nights are warm as well as days.

Despite the smaller harvest, demand from retailers and direct customers is strong. But production costs are rising, including the cost of deliveries and preparing the land, and local growers also compete with imported produce.

Venterzute said growers need to sell at prices that make production viable if they are to plant again next year. She added that it is difficult to compete with lower prices in September and October, when many sellers are trying to sell their produce at once.