The number of greenhouses in Latvia, both heated and unheated, has decreased over the last twenty years. Growers say they have to compete with imports and lower prices, Latvian Radio reported on 1 April.
The first cucumber harvest is already underway at the Cēsis farm Kliģeni, while tomatoes are ripening in the greenhouses next door, with the first harvest expected around Easter.
"There are 3 hectares of heated area for vegetables and a hectare for flowers. We grow flowers all season long. It is spring, pansy time, primroses, all kinds of bulbs. Then comes summer, all kinds of summer flowers, then comes autumn, chrysanthemum time, there are poinsettias, then we come back again in January, spring. And at the end of February, we planted the vegetable areas," explained Inese Raubiško-Reķe, the farm's greenhouse manager.
Kliģeni invested heavily in new greenhouses and modernized equipment several years ago, and the risk has paid off. The farm employs more than 100 people and produces more than 500 tonnes of cucumbers and around 1,000 tonnes of tomatoes per season. Raubiško-Reķe says that the season has started well, but there are many imports on the market.
Read more at LSM+