Onion market has found its way up again

'There are even more onions in the Netherlands than we thought' and 'the new onions from outside Europe are coming', which largely determined the mood on the onion market until a week or two ago. Last week, such noises were much less heard and sellers were already more firmly in the saddle. Now you don't hear anyone talking about it anymore and the mood turns the other way again. It can change.

There is certainly no shortage of good onions on offer, to put it mildly. The boxes of real free onions in the hands of the grower can perhaps be counted on two hands. Of course, there is also supply from speculators and other players. The common denominator is that they increase the asking price. At the beginning of last week, if you were lucky, you could still do business for around €70, but €80 has now already been paid. The spread in grower prices for onions is wide, but this is partly related to the quality and size of the onions.

Game for the enthusiasts
However, it is certainly not the case that sorters still take a chance and build up a position. Whatever is purchased already has a destination and the onions are quickly collected from the grower. Several sorters are still scratching their heads as to whether this season has not been good. Certainly the companies with few export customers of their own, who rely mainly on agency exporters, are giving up. This also reduces the group of buyers for onions.

A smaller group of sorters that remains active and a short working week also has an effect on the bale price. The DCA quotation Bale price of Onions takes a big step up this week. The bottom of the market has risen and for triplets the vast majority of sorters are again at or above €75 per 100 kilos. The supply of triplets is also relatively small because several sorters for customers in Eastern Europe run 40-60 or 40-70. Business for the supermarkets is now also being done at €90, although it must be noted that these are not the large volumes.