Asparagus grower Leo Henckens (Belgium): “Thankfully, Easter only lasts one weekend!”by FreshPlaza

Easter went well at Hoeve ‘t Bommesaarke, where Leo Henckens and his wife Carine Snijkers grow asparagus.

“We were incredibly busy. We’re glad it’s over—if it had lasted all week, I don’t know if we could have managed!” says the grower from Kinrooi.

“On Friday, demand was already very strong. I thought maybe people were trying to avoid the Saturday rush, so I expected things to calm down. But that wasn’t the case—Saturday was even more hectic. We also saw many new faces. Of course, our regular customers came, but we noticed a lot of newcomers this year. I don’t know if it’s because some colleagues have stopped, but since we didn’t do much advertising, it’s nice to see people still know how to find us.”

Henckens has been harvesting asparagus for a little over two weeks now. “We started on the 7th, which is much earlier than last year. We had to begin sooner than planned because we were caught off guard by the weather. It had been relatively cool, so we thought we still had time. Then suddenly it hit 25°C and everything took off. It was hectic since we didn’t have staff yet. They arrived several days late, so we had to handle things on our own for a while. Luckily, that’s sorted now and we’re back to full operation.”

Henckens is pleased with the quality.
“Last year we had many thin asparagus, especially toward the end of the season. But this year the quality is very good. After last season’s heavy rain, I expected worse, but the soil recovered well. We had a good growing summer, which gave us nice thick spears. That’s why the prices were good right from the start.”

“There was a slight dip last week. We thought prices would fall after Easter Monday, but they were actually higher than the Friday before. I wonder if some of my colleagues took Easter off? It felt like supply was lower, so prices held. As a result, we were able to keep up good sales and deliver decent volumes at solid prices. Today the market is softening a bit, but orders are still coming in, so things are going well.”