Seewinkel pepper harvest faces heat extremes

Austria’s largest vegetable producer cooperative is harvesting peppers under extreme heat, ORF reports. The cooperative’s Burgenland site in Wallern sorts and packages the produce before it reaches supermarkets across Austria.

LGV Sonnengemüse supplies much of the country’s demand for cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. More than 130 farming and gardening families from Burgenland, Vienna, Lower Austria and Styria contribute around 40,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables each year.

The cooperative grows more than 60 varieties of fresh vegetables and garden herbs under the brands LGV Gärtnergemüse and Seewinkler Sonnengemüse.

Peppers are currently the main crop being harvested. In the greenhouses, temperatures have reached 31 degrees Celsius and humidity 80 percent.

Lisa Thell, a vegetable farmer from Pamhagen, said workers try to start and finish early because the conditions are extremely difficult for them.

Michael Unger, who also grows several pepper varieties in Pamhagen, harvests eight to nine million peppers a year. The crop requires substantial moisture, but he said the farm tries to use water as efficiently as possible. Excess irrigation water is collected, while rainwater is stored in a separate reservoir and used for irrigation.

LGV Sonnengemüse is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. The cooperative was formed in 2019 through the merger of LGV Gärtnergemüse and Seewinkler Sonnengemüse, whose roots in Burgenland date back to 1930.