Onion demand and competition are rising in the Czech Republic

2017 has been a difficult growing season in the Czech Republic. Due to the heavy rain, many plots were flooded, causing a large portion of the onions to remain on the land. The quality of the onions that have arrived is very poor due to the rain. In general, there are considerably fewer good Czech onions on the market than there was last year.

The export figures show a significant increase compared to last year. Up to and including week 12, 1.170 tons of onions have been exported to the Czech Republic this season. This is almost a tripling of the export figures up to week 12 in the previous growing season.

Technical innovations
A lot has changed in onion cultivation in the Czech Republic in recent decades. The number of onion growers has decreased. The survivors are a lot larger than before. Through technical innovations, these onion growers have succeeded in raising yields to a much higher level. Under normal conditions, onion growers can achieve a net yield of approximately 50 to 60 tons per hectare.   

As mentioned, production in the Czech Republic is increasing under normal circumstances. The Netherlands exports onions to the Czech Republic to fill the gaps. It faces increasing competition from Poland, which is (to a large extent) more favorable from a logistics point of view than the Netherlands. Germany is also becoming an increasing competitor. As a long-term trend, it is noticeable that fewer onions have been exported to the Czech Republic in recent years.

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Export from the Czech Republic until the 2016 harvest year.Next months
At the end of the season, more Dutch onions generally go to the Czech Republic. When looking at the export figures of the past two seasons, a large difference can be noticed in the total export volumes up to and including week 12 and the export figures up to and including week 22.

Last growing season, export figures to the Czech Republic stood at 12 tons of onions in week 402. Ten weeks later, the export figures stood at 1.431 tons of onions, an increase of 255%. Crop year 2015 shows an increase of 12% between week 22 and week 123.

The cultivation problems in the Czech Republic mean that there is a shortage of onions in the country. The Netherlands is one of the candidates to fill these shortages. If the traditional final sprint starts again this year, relatively many onions will still go to the Czech Republic in the coming weeks.