France - Challenging weather conditions for lamb's lettuce sowing

28.11.2023 470 views

This winter's flagship product, large-leaf lamb's lettuce, is just getting underway at SAS Racines Carrées. The 100% organic producers' organization also cultivates shell lamb's lettuce all year round, for packaging in trays. This Nantes-based range is "recognized and renowned," thanks in particular to the terroir's soil and climate characteristics: "sandy soils and an oceanic climate," explains Simon Plantive, sales manager at SAS Racines Carrées.

Too much water during sowing
Although SAS Racines Carrées was spared by storms that struck Brittany in early November, the lamb's lettuce seedlings still suffered from the rain. "There's been a lot of water in the last few weeks in the area. It's made planting very difficult, especially for lamb's lettuce. We couldn't get into the plots". The result? "The large-scale production of lamb's lettuce that usually arrives for Christmas will undoubtedly be impacted, and supply difficulties are therefore to be expected." These problems have affected the whole region, "both organic and conventional crops."

New production basins
Specialists in lamb's lettuce for several years now, Nantes-based growers have noticed in recent years the emergence of new crops in other regions that could "compete with Nantes-based lamb's lettuce. These are recent productions that are still developing, with volumes that are currently small and mainly sold on local markets".

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com

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