Unreality as a common thread through onion season

The much-hoped-for revival in demand appears to have been delayed. There seemed to be talk of a halt in price decline for a while, but it ultimately turned out to be wishful thinking. Demand should be able to recover in the first week of 2017, but the reality is that the onion market is even quieter than in the period before Christmas.

This week a boat will be loaded with onions in Vlissingen with Senegal and Mauritania as final destination. These are reportedly the last onions to go to Senegal this season. As may be known, Senegal retroactively introduced a quota in the second week of November for the volume of onions that may be imported until February 10, 2017.

Insiders indicate that there are a huge amount of onions on the quays in Dakar. Not every importer would have handled the quota allocated to him equally well, which ultimately resulted in many more onions being exported to Senegal. The result is that the import season has come to a standstill even earlier.

This bill ultimately ends up on the plate of Nederland BV. And that is sad, especially for the trade that has to work with onions that are too expensive in light of the current market. The bale prices drop for the medium sorting to 11,00 euros per 100 kg. There are still onions to be processed for delivery in the December / January period that were purchased for more money.

Every exporter bows their heads to the question: 'Where are the sales opportunities for the near future?' It doesn't seem to get much further than shrugging the shoulders at the moment. South America, better is Brazil, is currently showing no desire to buy. Sales to Central America are limited to relatively smaller quantities.

Sales to countries on the African continent are declining. Sales to countries in the Far East, especially Malaysia, are expected to continue. Sales to European countries seem difficult to expand in addition to regular work (due to sufficient availability of home-grown onions), as a result of which the total export volume is shrinking.

Insiders indicate that it has been about 2 decades since it has been so quiet at this time of year. An unreal situation. Unreality seems to run like a common thread through the season. The export volume versus price developments do not match at all, making it difficult to roll out a sales strategy.

In the graph below, the green (onion price) and red (export volume) trend line clearly shows the mismatch between the development of export demand on the one hand and that of the price on the other.