News Onions
VTA: '2019 seed onions harvest doubled'
If we rely on the test harvesting figures for seed onions from the growers' organization VTA, the Dutch seed onion harvest amounts to 1,66 million tons. That is almost double the volume harvested last year. The VTA figures are on the multi-year average.
In September, a permanent group of VTA members carried out a trial harvesting of seed onions. This averages out at 59,6 tonnes per hectare, which is considerably more than the 41,4 tonnes per hectare sampled in 2018. However, if we compare the average of previous years, this comes to 59,5 tonnes per hectare. If we include the year 2018, the average good is 50 tons.
Numbers truthful?
The result of VTA is very likely in the upper regions of the Netherlands. As with the potatoes, the picture may be clouded by the location of the samples. The members of VTA traditionally live on the clay soils in the southwest and in Flevoland. There is more precipitation here and a lot of rain compared to the east of our country.
VTA also notes that the spread per plot is very large. The lowest sample is below 25 tons per hectare and the highest at almost 85 tons. Whether it could be irrigated makes a lot of difference. In the central and northern Netherlands, the average yield is 62,4 tonnes per hectare. The south is at 51,5 tons per hectare.
Size average
In terms of size percentage, the onions are also average. The percentage of 60 millimeters upwards is at 57%, which is equal to the average. In the south of the country, onions are slightly coarser on average. This means that the onions of 2019 are not overly coarse. In 2015, a percentage of 62% was achieved.
Niels van der Boom
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