"German salad varieties widely available" (2024)

Locally produced salad

The German salad season has started. Many varieties of lettuce from German cultivation are available. Consumers are especially interested in the lettuce and it is commercially available throughout the whole year.

"Mainly regional-oriented"
The region around Lake Constance (Bodensee) is one of the largest vegetable growing areas of Germany. A long-established company in the area is the Fruchthof Konstanz GmbH. The family business is now run by the third generation and buys mainly from farmers in the Lake Constance region. "We are first and foremost regionally oriented," said a spokesperson of the wholesaler, "If, however, no regional produce is available, we provide our customers with imported salad from abroad."

Daily deliveries
"We're working hard to provide our customers, with a complete range of salad throughout the year," said the spokeswoman. As a specialist wholesaler for vegetables and fruit the Fruchthof Konstanz GmbH supplies their customers with produce from the entire Lake Constance region. Customers mainly include catering business or the food retail sector.

"The taste of the customer is different"
One of the most popular salads in Germany is the iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce tastes very fresh for a long time long due to its tight and well-hydrated leaves. However among the customers of Fruchthof it is not easy to see a specific trend. "The taste of our clients is very varied. What is very well liked by one, is not the taste of the other," said the spokesperson.

Increased consumption from spring to autumn
Currently the Fruchthof has many domestic lettuce varieties in its range. "German lettuce varieties are plentiful. For example there currently are red oak leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, a local selection of organic lamb's lettuce, Lollo Biondo and Rosso, radicchio, lettuce hearts and many more." Especially in the warmer months, Germans consume of a lot of salad. This trend also shows among the customers of Fruchthof: "Due to the popularity of Lake Constance as a tourist destination, an increase can be seen, especially from spring to fall. In those months more salad is consumed than in the cooler months."