The sunny and dry weather of the past week ensures an extra supply of onion sets on the market. The market still seems to be in the holiday mood, so demand is not really picking up yet. That in turn puts pressure on prices, which means that buyers only do what is immediately necessary and wait for the market to fall further.
The field quotation for yellow onion onions at the stock exchange in Goes has dropped this week by €2,50 compared to last week to €11 per 100 kilos. Due to increasing supply, processors who have sufficient onions and little demand from abroad, the price is dropping. Nothing strange in itself, this is something that often happens at the start of a new season.
Rain is forecast for the coming days. Several growers are responding to this by now bringing in the onion sets. If the changeable weather lasts for a week or more, they hope that there will be some shortage and they will benefit from rising onion prices.
Export must get going
The Dutch onion sector, which is primarily export-oriented, has been able to benefit from problems in other parts of the world in recent years. Consider, for example, the crop failures in India. This year there have been no major gaps to be filled with Dutch onions. Exporters are therefore still looking for where they can take the onions. There may be opportunities this year in drought-stricken America.
Eastern Europe is on the market, but buyers there have quite a lot of local supply and therefore only do business in the Netherlands if the price is suitable (compliance is low). The driving force behind Dutch onion exports is Africa and countries in that continent are not yet very active in the market. There, the old onions (own harvest and import) are still getting in the way of the new ones. According to several insiders, if Africa enters the market, exports will automatically improve.