New Zealand onions popular with Europeans

In week 4, the first New Zealand onions were shipped to a port on mainland Europe. This means that the 2020 export season started in the same period as previous years. Only in 2016 and 2017 did exports to European ports start a week earlier.

The counter for exports to Europe now stands at 82.211 tons (excl. the United Kingdom), which is 1.632 tons less than the volume in 2019. The 5-year average, from 2014 to 2019, is 73.167 tons. There was a clear trend break in 2019. Buyers from mainland Europe then bought more than 19.000 tons more onions from New Zealand compared to 2018. This was mainly the result of the miserable European onion harvest in the 2018 harvest season.

Lots of onions to German ports
The 2019-2020 season (harvest 2019) was a lot better in terms of yield for onion growing Europe, but the import of New Zealand onions hardly suffered. Exports to German ports in particular catch the eye. At 31.706 tonnes, this is exactly 10.861 tonnes ahead of the quantity imported from New Zealand by our eastern neighbors last year. An increase of no less than 52%. Exactly 21 tons fewer onions were shipped to Dutch ports up to and including week 7.055, a decline of 19%.

The total volume of onions that New Zealand has exported this season is 147.420 tonnes (last year: 147.081 tonnes). A complete overview is provided in the table below.