German asparagus season faces peril as coronavirus shuts out pickers

BERLIN (Reuters) - German growers of white asparagus, an expensive delicacy savoured by food lovers in spring, fear this year's harvest may go to waste as coronavirus lockdowns shut out seasonal pickers from Eastern Europe.Ernst-August Winkelmann, whose farm in Beelitz southwest of Berlin produces about 6,000 tons of asparagus each season, says he is short of 500 pickers and risks having no choice but to leave the finger-thick white spears to rot in the soil.Most of his seasonal workers come..