Open access publications in the SLU publication database

White cabbage production for the fresh market requires major inputs of manual labour and in Sweden the white cabbage crop is mainly harvested by hand. The knife is the most important tool in this work. Once the cabbage head is cut, it is placed directly in a large wooden crate or in a
steel cage on a wheeled loader or tractor-mounted front loader. There are also harvesting systems which use a conveyor to make the manual harvesting work easier. The vast majority of the labour requirement in white cabbage production, comprising around 75 % of the work, is at harvest.

Swedish white cabbage production is under severe competitive pressure from imports. The main costs in production lie with harvesting, packing, packaging and freight. The important question for the future is how white cabbage production for the fresh market can lower its costs. In a meeting with growers, it emerged that a rational method for harvesting is one of the most
important issues for the future of the Swedish white cabbage production.

In the late 1970s, Swedish growers in Västergötland came in contact with mechanical harvesting of white cabbage. The equipment was developed for direct supply of processing cabbage. However, the harvester handled the cabbage roughly, which meant that the method did not enter
practical use in Sweden.

Now several new companies that supply machinery for harvesting white cabbage have been
identified. For example, Asa-Lift in Denmark and Univerco in Canada have machines for supplying the fresh vegetable market and for storage.

White cabbage growers from Västergötland have visited the Asa-Lift factory in Denmark and have been to see Danish growers who harvest white cabbage mechanically. Mechanical harvesting has three times the capacity of manual harvesting.

Storage of mechanically harvested white cabbage, for the fresh market, has been found to work well up to mid-March in Denmark. However, before the technique can be recommended on a large scale in Sweden, there is a need for greater experience regarding long-term storage of mechanically harvested white cabbage, for the fresh market, and an evaluation of the varieties
that are best suited to this method.