It was considered impossible for a long time this season, but the yellow onions have surpassed the price of the red onions.
At the turn of the year there was no shortage of red onions. The onion shortage in India caused surrounding countries to turn to Dutch exporters. When India itself started to place orders, the price of red onions shot up. In just a few weeks, the price rose from €20 to €35. Traders and packers got the impression that red onions would run out early this year and bought a lot of stock.
Cancellation of orders
Unfortunately, the red onion market turned out differently than expected, and certainly also than hoped. India canceled a number of orders just after New Year's Eve and soon exported the new harvest again. In the meantime, bale prices for red onions also rose, putting a brake on orders in Europe. Just when the demand for red onions increased again, the corona measures threw a spanner in the works. The catering industry usually processes a lot of red onions, but the closure means that an important sales market is disappearing.
Very few additional lots of red onions were purchased in 2020. Traders and processors took large positions during the New Year and demand for red onions is lagging behind. Now that the calendar is mid-May, many growers are inclined to say goodbye to their red onions as soon as a buyer comes along. This development has a negative effect on the price. Emmeloord's last stock exchange quotation for red onions was €18 to €20.
Fighting for the last yellow onions
How different is the situation with yellow onions. Around the turn of the year the price was around €12 to €15. For a long time it seemed that the onions did not want to exceed this price. It wasn't until last week that the price broke out upwards.
Although onion exports have been ahead of the schedule of the current export record from 2017 all season, a lot of onions had to be processed this season due to the large area expansion. However, the processing was not only done for the fresh market, the industrial market in Poland was also one of the largest buyers of Dutch onions this year (this cannot be found on the export lists).
There have also been many quality problems with onions (falling bald) recently. This makes it difficult to find good parties. This caused a run on good onions last week (week 20). At least €20 is now paid for nice parties. People are now competing for the last good onions of the 2019 growing season.