At The Birthplace Of Apple Juice

The food industry in Saxony-Anhalt has now established itself as the strongest sector of the manufacturing industry in the state. Revenue in food and animal feed production has increased by 5.6 percent in 2013 compared to the previous year to almost 7.16 billion euros. Approximately 21,800 people are employed in the 172 companies in the food and beverage industry of the state. Saxony-Anhalt primarily focuses on regional production, and the expansion of organic products plays an increasingly important role. Also the company Becker Eislebener Fruchtsaft GmbH & Co. KG bets on locally grown fruits. From purely statistical terms, one in ten glasses of apple juice that is drunk in Germany comes from Eisleben.

From purely statistical terms, one in ten glasses of apple juice that is drunk in Germany comes from Eisleben. The town has developed into a stronghold of the tasty beverage in recent years. Adam and Eve would have enjoyed it. After all, the German per capita consumption of the drink is 8.4 litres a year.

The premises of Becker Eislebener Fruchtsaft GmbH & Co. KG. are at their busiest period during autumn. Huge trucks deliver apples every half hour. The harvest this year is outstanding. "We have our hands full trying to press a part of it as quickly as possible", says managing director Ulrich Günther. But the presses will continue to run in the coming months. The season is almost always like this since the supply from the cold storage is also ensured to continue.

But why just Eisleben? Ulrich Günther explains about the growing tradition of the site. There were apple trees as far as the eye could see in the area around the town by the lake Süßer See during the GDR era. The town ran its own fruit juice production plant since the mid-1980s. In the GDR, orange juice and local fruits were in short supply. Most small cider producers in the state could not meet the demand. Those who could hand in fruit from their own garden and then receive the equivalent back in pressed form were lucky. At that time, raw juices from Eisleben were exported to West Germany and helped to fill the currency accounts of the German Democratic Republic.

beckers bester GmbH & Co fell back on this potential of experience and decided to purchase the operation as well as the construction of the completely new production facilities. From then on beckers bester relied on juices from Saxony-Anhalt. In connection with necessary restructuring measures on the premises of beckers bester, the production facility in Eisleben was sold to a new owner. "As a more economically viable and therefore securer location, we did not have to worry about the future", says the managing director. The fruit juice production plant has been continually developed since the early 1990s.

To read more about the success of beckers bester business history in the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the long tradition of the food and beverage industry in the state, please click here.