Every onion year brings its own challenges. That is no different now. Much has been said and written about the extreme growing season. The consequences are now becoming increasingly clear. From good onions that cannot be faulted to stuff that brings tears to the eyes, everything is covered. This wide spread in quality does not make trading any easier, especially in the longer term.
The weather is reasonably cooperative for the onion harvest, but there is still something to be done after this week. Despite the fact that we are already relatively late in the year, the quality is not necessarily bad. The color may have lost a bit, but there are still plenty of good onions going in. Yet there are also growers who bring in very questionable onions. They could come home from a rude awakening in the coming weeks. Especially if there is acid or fusarium in them and it is not possible to actually dry them, there is no market for that at all. The Polish industry, which set a very high floor in the market last season, is now a buyer, but at very different price levels.
You can almost call it a certainty that onions will fall off in the coming weeks. And that makes sorters, traders and speculators cautious. "But just wait a few weeks until they are completely dry and then see what's in the shed," say several buyers. Some buyers would be willing to do something, but then the asking and bidding prices are often a long way apart. The grower is willing to pay €40 in November, so to speak, but the sorter is not. And at €40 in March, the sorter is interested, but you can't get the grower on board. Most players in the onion market agree that there will probably still be opportunities. But a lot depends on what will happen in the coming weeks. The money for the first onions sent to Africa this season should be received by now and will that work or not? And what happens to the bad Dutch onions, do they quickly disappear from the market or do they continue to fester?
Additional work must be paid for
Sorters don't want to be busy at the moment. When there is a boat off Africa it is busier, but otherwise it is mainly loose container work for many sorters. That doesn't have to be bad at all, but it does require some shifting after a few seasons with gigantic export figures in this period. Smartly shifting the sizes for optimal returns and paying sufficient attention to sorting and preparation makes the difference in what remains at the bottom of the line. A slightly smaller batch that would have been sent straight to Poland last year is now being picked up again between the companies by the Dutch sorters. With just a little more margin, that space is available.
De DCA quotation Bale price of Onions remains under some pressure. Depending on a sorter's customers, the sizes vary slightly. By sorting 50-70, one person can achieve a plus on both mediums and triplets and then accepts that hardly any coarse will come out of a batch, while another wants coarse and then makes concessions on the triplets does. All things considered, the average bale price is around or just under €45.