Flanders: the specialists in large lettuce.
In Belgium, lettuce is mainly grown under glass. However, 30% of total production is grown in the open-air. Large lettuce is the region's speciality. Flemish growers have gained a strong position on the EU market with their large lettuces with heads of 450 to 650g. In addition, Flanders offers a rich variety of coloured lettuces and curly endives.
A characteristic of the Flemish lettuce industry is the use of environment-friendly methods of cultivation with nitrate monitoring and the choice of disease-resistant varieties. The lettuce crop is controlled and monitored more closely in Flanders than in any other region of cultivation. Random samples are taken from each plot (in units of 30 hectares) and analyzed in the highly specialized laboratory of the University of Gent.
