Fruit and vegetables: More self-sufficiency at all costs?

With one bite, the freshly picked strawberry disappears into Jean-Claude Muller's mouth. "Wonderfully sweet, " he says. It's mid-May. We are standing in a polytunnel (a structure covered with plastic film) in the countryside around Contern, where the fruit is gradually harvested as soon as it is ripe.

Today, the Muller-Lemmer family business grows rhubarb, mirabelle plums, apples and cherries on around ten hectares. The farm manager cannot (or does not want to) reveal whether he is the largest vegetable farm in the country with his 20 hectares of lettuce, cabbage or pumpkin. "There are a few others hovering around that size."

Strawberries are also one of the fruits that, according to Muller, have a good chance of being grown in glass greenhouses in the future. In mid-May, just five months after the depot, parliament passed the subsidy law for the construction of greenhouses with 54 votes in favour. Déi Lénk and déi gréng abstained from the vote. In concrete terms, the state will be providing up to 20 million euros in one-off funding to – it is hoped – boost fruit and vegetable cultivation in Luxembourg on a large scale. If the total amount were to be utilised, this would correspond to an investment of around 50 million euros. Minister Martine Hansen (CSV) wants to organise an initial call for tenders towards the end of the year, followed by two tenders per year for the remaining budget. "With this law, we want to make progress, " she said in plenary.