A growing season that was characterized by extremes and growers who in some cases took a big gamble with the harvest, has not been without consequences. It is not surprising that quality is the hot topic among traders and sorters at the moment. You can't afford any misses at these price levels.
This week, the onion harvest was affected between showers, at times by quite a few millimeters. Next week the weather reports look a lot more favorable. In the southwest, almost all of the onions could be harvested. In the north it will not be easy to complete the harvest next week. Especially the late sown plots ripen unevenly and late. Then you quickly resort to emergency measures such as mechanical ironing to give the onions a helping hand. When loading you can clearly see that we are at the end of September. It no longer dries as it does in August.
Who's taking the gamble?
Business on the farm is relatively quiet. Growers do not feel the need to sell and traders and sorters are concerned about the quality of the onions. Many sorters have already experienced some things with the onion sets and things did not go well everywhere with the seed onions that were lifted and loaded a few weeks ago during the heat. Because the problems often only surface after a few weeks, several traders think: Just leave the risk with the growers and if the cell continues to look good in a few weeks or months, we can always buy. On average, tare percentages are also slightly above average for this time of year. That further reinforces the feeling that you have to be careful with the quality. If there is a period of compelling supply, this is generally not conducive to prices. What dampens the buying spirit this week is that another round of land can be done. Sorters prefer to keep some of the boxes empty in order to perhaps get a bargain next week from growers who have miscalculated in terms of yield and/or shed space.
Growers are generally (as usual) convinced of the quality of their own onions. And it certainly has to be said: there are also plenty of good onions that have been brought in that, if you take good care of them, they can probably be stored for a long time without any problems. Growers estimate the risks slightly differently than buyers and look more at the opportunities that may lie ahead later this season. And buyers are a bit more skeptical about that. 'It is not a certainty in onion cultivation that storage is rewarded,' say some sorters.
Correction
A remarkable piece of news came from the Goes fair today. The stock exchange committee has made a correction to the quotation of September 4. The listing of yellow seed onions was incorrectly included in the mailing. The category had already been split into 30-60% coarse and >60% coarse, which were correct. However, the good listener can reason why a correction is made almost three weeks later.
This week there was a boat off Africa and that always creates some extra excitement on the market. Yet the DCA quotation Bale price of Onions a bit under pressure. Many games that are being played now are on the nice side. There is therefore a certain tension between the amounts of triplets/averages and gross/supers. The spread in prices is therefore wide, from €42 for triplets to €54 for supers. All things considered, the bale price is around €46 on average.