Wiebes: 'Onion harvest forecast remains in October'

Minister Eric Wiebes (Economic Affairs and Climate) writes in a letter to parliament that he wants to continue publishing the CBS harvest estimates for seed onions in October. This despite the fuss about a possible market-distorting effect.

Wiebes writes in the letter that he has no arguments to prove that the harvest estimate has a distorting effect on the market. "It is possible that the preliminary estimates could influence the pricing, but the CBS estimate is independent. There is no party that has more or less food in advance."

Own estimates
Wiebes argues that if there were no estimates from Statistics Netherlands, the various parties would then make their own estimates. "That would rather have a market-disrupting effect on market prices," says Wiebes.

He also believes that it is not feasible to make the estimates only in December. This is because the harvest estimates for the other crops take place in October. If the data on the onions have to be collected separately, this will cause extra costs for farmers and lead to higher costs for Statistics Netherlands.

Noise
Quite a bit arose about the matter in February fuss, because several onion growers felt that the figures had a negative impact on the market. At the time, the CDA had parliamentary questions about this posed† However, this year almost everyone agreed the yield reductions of the CBS. 

At the National Economic Agricultural Congress on Tuesday 18 December, Cor Pierik, agricultural spokesperson for Statistics Netherlands, will give an explanation of the 2018 Agricultural Census. You can sign up at www.agriculturalcongress.nl and subscribers of Boerenbusiness can reserve 2 tickets for free!

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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