Halloween can come in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Pumpkins are grown on 117 hectares in the state. Because of the drought, the harvest this year is a bit worse.
Neubrandenburg (dpa/mv) - This year Halloween fans in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania can again rely on pumpkins from local production as decoration for the scary festival on October 31st. As the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian Farmers' Association announced on Thursday, pumpkins of all kinds are being grown in the federal state on an area of around 117 hectares. This is the result of the statistical data sheet from August 2022, which shows the acreage for 2021.
This puts pumpkins well behind other products such as broccoli (415.8 hectares), but only slightly behind asparagus (165.5 hectares). "However, the acreage for pumpkins in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has increased most in vegetable cultivation in recent years," according to the farmers' association. It has increased by 148.4 percent since 2020. The area was 47.1 hectares in 2020. In the years 2015 to 2020, the average cultivated area was 23 hectares.
2342.1 tons of pumpkins were harvested last year. Compared to 2020 (884.7 tons), this means an increase of around 165 percent. As it was said from producer circles, the harvest was somewhat poorer this year due to the drought. Exact figures were not yet available.
One of the heaviest pumpkins in the country was awarded a good two weeks ago in the Agroneum Alt Schwerin (Mecklenburg Lake District). The pumpkin of the 14-year-old breeder Fiete Stutz weighed exactly 412 kilograms.
