It almost seems as if sorters and exporters think this season has been good. The plan is to clean up what is left and start with a clean slate on the new onion sets. Cleaning up the last onions from the 2023 harvest is not going to go very smoothly in this difficult market.
How many onions are left from the previous harvest is and remains a guess, but insiders agree that there are still quite a few. How long they will last is another matter. For the time being, however, they remain hanging above the market and that simply does not make trading any smoother. It is no longer easy to find a destination for the mediocre or bad onions that are still in the shed, let alone someone who will give something for them.
There is still relatively little trade in onion onions. It is of course still very early for the bulk, but this time last year there was more action at the grower. Of course, it also helped that the market was fairly clean then, unlike now. It is very difficult to calculate what we can expect for the onion sets. On the supply side, there are sufficient plots that are in reasonable to good condition. A plot with a lesser spot is the rule rather than the exception this season. Top yields are not likely, regardless of what the large quantities of water have done to the quality. On the demand side, the reports are somewhat mixed. Some exporters have quite a few requests from Asia and Central America, but do not yet dare to do so with the winter onion sets. Other exporters who are more focused on Africa find it tame. It does not seem possible now that we will have a repeat of Senegal entering the market extremely early.
Hot days
The weather reports are followed with great anticipation by almost everyone in the onion sector. Warm days are forecast for next week and it remains to be seen whether the onions - which have so far mainly had their feet in the water - can withstand the copper beetle. Sowing onions with a limited leaf apparatus can be useful according to some insiders, but onion sets with a lot of foliage that are evaporating can quickly fall over. With these weather forecasts and uncertainties in the market, dare to put a price on eradicated onion sets.
De DCA quotation Bale price of Onions is under pressure this week. Broadly speaking, the range is between €20 and €25. Last week, more was paid, especially for the larger sizes. Now many packers are more interested in getting rid of stock quickly and are making price concessions.
Read here is the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.