There are no major crowds at the onion market this week. Some of the staff at various sorters already have this week off. The demand is not such that every effort has to be made, although it still feels like there is some pressure to get rid of the last orders before Christmas.
With the holidays approaching, the Africa season is also coming to an end. The question on the minds of sorters is what the market will do if the driving force behind current exports stops. Compared to other European countries, Dutch onions are relatively expensive. There is not much room to drop the bale price. There are quite a few sorters who bought onions from the grower a few weeks ago for €50 for delivery in January. These are not large volumes, but it still hurts when they have to be collected later.
High expectations
Buying good large onions for much less than €40 from the grower is difficult. If they are available at all, because growers with top onions are keeping the door closed and hoping for a repeat of last season. Whether that line will be followed is far from certain. Last season, several speculators had made good money in the first half of the season. The flow was there, the confidence was good and there was enough money to repeat the trick again in the second half of the season, but at a much higher level. This season, speculators have much fewer positions and therefore much less influence. The 2018/19 season also saw a slow period after the New Year and it took until April for the market to start moving again.
An important difference with last season and 2018/19 is that the hectare yields of onions were a lot lower, and not only in the Netherlands. This season, quality is a much bigger problem. Quality problems usually do not help sales. Various sorters and traders emphasize that the onions can still go in any direction.
De DCA quotation Bale price of Onions remains largely stable this week. Triplets and means are under some pressure, but there are no major shifts. It is not very busy by the way.