The first fruit of the German plum season has been harvested near Baden in south-west Germany as part of a major promotional event held by national industry association BVEO and local producer organisation Marktkontor Obst und Gemüse Baden to highlight the start of this year's marketing campaign.
In the presence of current Miss Germany and Miss Baden-Württemberg Doris Schmidts, as well as Cindy L, the so-called Plum Queen from nearby city of Bühl, the event marked the beginning of a whole series of marketing activities planned by Germany's plum producer organisations in 2009.
Germany is expected to produce a total of around 1.5bn plums and prunes this season, the vast majority of which is grown in the regions of Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Bavaria and Lower Saxony.
According to Günther Junker, chief executive of the Marktkontor Baden, quality is expected to be 'outstanding' this season thanks to the good yields available and the fact that water supplies have been sufficient during production.
This year will be the first time growers and marketers have been without the sales and export marketing services of CMA, which was disbanded earlier this year after Germany's High Court ruled its marketing levy system was illegal under existing legislation.
According to Dr Albrecht Rittmann, Ministerial Director of Baden-Württemberg, many of Germany's smaller plum farmers have now pulled out of the market.
'Plum production has clearly become more professional and there has been a trend towards development of more modern product ranges,' he commented.
In the past six years, total plum production area in Germany has fallen from 1,933ha to 1,870ha, although the actual number of trees has increased from 974,000 to 1.04m.
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