Greenhouse vegetable production decreases in 2022

Greenhouse vegetable production totalled 89 million kilograms in 2022, of which cucumbers accounted for 50 and tomatoes 34 million kilograms, said the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) in a recent press release.

The production volumes of both tomatoes and cucumbers decreased by three million kilos.

The price of electricity had a significant impact on the winter production of produce based on artificial lighting, already starting from spring 2022.

However, the price of electricity affects enterprises very differently, depending on the price levels defined in electricity agreements.

As the greenhouse cucumber harvest has been record-high in the past two years, the decrease can partly be explained by market saturation, which is also affected by the cucumber consumer price.

“Several greenhouse enterprises did not produce any vegetables this winter. This is reflected in the 2022 harvest figures. This year will be exceptional, as focus is on natural light production. This may cause market peaks because natural light production may start at the same time and harvesting will also be carried out at the same time,” said Anna-Kaisa Jaakkonen, senior statistician of Luke.

Last year, outdoor vegetable production totalled 189 million kilos, of which carrots accounted for 76 million kilos. In all, beetroots, cabbages and onions are the cornerstones of outdoor production, and they are also key crops for food security as stock products.

The total horticultural berry harvest was close to the previous year’s level at 20 million kilos, of which strawberries accounted for nearly 16 million kilos. The tunnel production area for berries increased to 112 hectares.

In 2022, Finland produced a total of 305 million kilos of vegetables, berries and fruit. This figure is slightly bigger than in the previous year.

The number of horticultural enterprises totalled 3,050 (-193), having nearly 19,000 hectares of fields and 362 (-13) hectares of greenhouses in horticultural production.

Both the number of enterprises and the total area decreased in outdoor and greenhouse production.

With regard to weather conditions, the 2022 horticultural year was warmer than usual, even being the warmest in the measurement history in parts of the country.

Even though irrigation is widely used in outdoor production, the shortage of water partly limited growth, and irrigation also increased production costs. Otherwise, there was a significant increase in production costs, and especially the price of electricity tested greenhouse producers. Similarly, the storage costs of vegetables increased.