The onion export is off to a flying start. The export figure is thus ahead of last year at the start of the season. Now that the onion harvest has been completed, the question arises: how many onions are there this year?
To answer that question is Boerenbusiness delved into the figures. Together with the market experts from DCA, we have made a yield forecast for seed onions.
The area for seed onions this year is 30.065 hectares. This figure is based on the areas reported in the combined statement and published by Boer&Bunder. Compared to last year, the onion area has grown by 10%. In 2020, 27.280 hectares of seed onions were grown. This year's acreage sets a new record.
The starting position is to achieve a record harvest. But the growing conditions in the season also play an important role. After three dry summers, which cost a lot of yield in areas where irrigation is not possible (especially the southwest), the past season was relatively wet. This has caused incidental water damage, especially in the north of the country.
It was clearly noticeable that a wet year brings other challenges. Not weed control, but keeping the crop healthy was the big issue for many growers this year. Especially in July and August, many reports were received of, among other things, contamination with downy mildew. But few plots have remained completely disease-free.
Big differences
What is striking this year are the big differences. Not only does the yield vary greatly from region to region, but yields also vary considerably from plot to plot within regions. There are also variations within the plots themselves. But based on reports from experts in the field, we arrive at the following yield forecast.
On the northern clay we assume an average yield of 52 tons per hectare. For the southwest we also arrive at 52 tons per hectare. The Flevopolders are slightly above this with an average of 55 tons per hectare. On the sandy soils in the east (from Drenthe to Limburg), the average yield is estimated at 48 tons per hectare.
All together, this results in an average yield for the Netherlands of just under 52,1 tonnes per hectare. That is above the five-year average of Statistics Netherlands. The final gross yield there is 48,5 tons per hectare. That average has been significantly reduced by the low yield of 35,5 tons per hectare in 2018. If we ignore 2018, the average is 51,75 tons per hectare, almost the same as the figure for this year. The total yield expectation for the Netherlands is 1.565.803 tons of onions. If we compare this number with the provisional harvest estimates from Statistics Netherlands, only 2017 comes close with 1.513.686 tons.