The amount of greenhouse vegetables harvested in the Netherlands in 2022 has decreased by 7.9 percent compared to the previous year. Tomatoes and cucumbers in particular suffered: they were harvested 12.5 and 9.1 percent less respectively. This is reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) figures published Friday.
There is a clear culprit for the shrinking revenues: the rise in energy prices. The vegetables are mainly grown in energy-guzzling greenhouses, an expensive joke in the year when energy prices climbed to record highs. The harvest of greenhouse tomatoes shrunk in one year by 110 million kilos to 770 million kilos. For cucumbers, the decrease was slightly smaller, by more than 9 percent, to 400 million kilos.
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Cultivation was also less efficient: the yield per hectare of greenhouse vegetables fell by 7.6 percent to 356 tonnes. The greenhouse tomato cultivation itself had to contend with a decline of 11 percent. The total amount of greenhouse horticultural land remained approximately the same in 2022 at five thousand hectares.
Exceptional eggplant
There was one bright spot in the sector: the eggplant. The purple fruit was the only one whose harvest increased. Growing aubergines and peppers can also be done in an energy-efficient way in winter, making this process less dependent on electricity costs.
Although 2022 was a remarkably tough year for greenhouse horticulture, harvests were still higher than a decade earlier. This was a plus of 5.4 percent across the board. Eggplants and bell peppers were even grown by 40.4 and 26.1 percent respectively. The tomato has become less popular in the past ten years, as witnessed by the decrease of 4.3 percent.