Onions cannot grow well coarse due to dry and warm weather. The situation is particularly worrying in Zeeland. What is the situation further in the country, and is it already clear how the trade will respond to an offer of mainly fine onions?
"Only the early sown onions will achieve good yields," says Jaap Jonker, sales manager at De Groot en Slot. "Onions sown after mid-April often have too little foliage. We see that growth has come to a standstill." The foliage no longer grows and you get point burns from above. He does not expect growth to pick up and that will result in little coarseness. "Because the necks are relatively thin this year, the onions will start to iron earlier than in other years."
Problems southwest
"The situation is again the worst in the southwest of the country," says Jonker. "They have to deal with a combination of few irrigation options and waterlogging due to heavy rainfall (earlier this season)." The harvest of onion onions also causes problems; the onions must first be irrigated before they can be removed from the ground.
Also the population of thrips takes extreme forms on some plots. Thrips grow best under dry and warm conditions. The current damage is not only caused by the drought, but is due to a combination with the high thrips pressure.
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Good onions too
There are not extreme problems everywhere. In North Groningen, the onions (sown before frost) are doing well, and in the Noordoostpolder yields of 60 to 70 tons per hectare are also expected on some plots.
An issue for growers is whether they should already carry out spraying with maleic hydrazide (MH). Usually spraying takes place at a 'bulb-neck ratio' of 3,5 to 1. This is more difficult now, because the ripening is earlier than normal. Nevertheless, Jonker advises to spray now: "The longer you wait, the more uncertain it becomes whether the anti-sprout treatment will still be absorbed." However, it is essential that the crop remains vital and green for another 2 weeks after the treatment.
Also with drought in England and Spain
Jonker says that growers in England have the same problems. "They like to have onions of 70 to 90 millimeters coarse there, but because they are now experiencing extreme drought there themselves, they see that they have to shift that wish." The British onion growers' association reports that yields in the country are 25% lower.
Jonker also says that it is also very dry in Spain. "Nevertheless, reasonable yields are expected, at least with larger onions than last year."
How does the market react?
The hope is that the market will realize that smaller onions are coming. The arable farmers indicate that they want to be compensated for the lower kilos and poor yields of recent years. However, packers are in a difficult situation: there is a supply of fine onions, but demand is mainly focused on large onions.
The fresh market usually accepts that consumer packages contain smaller onions, according to a packer. The problem lies with the cutting plants, which in many cases cannot work with onions below 60 millimeters.
The packers indicate that the price for large onions can go through the roof, but that they have seen an accumulation of the small size to expect. Inquiries at GroentenFruit Huis and the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority show that international trade relations can now do little to prepare the market for a supply of fewer, and especially small, onions.