It is normal that the onion market is somewhat searching around this time. The onions from the field are almost gone, something has to come out of temporary storage and exporters are busy with Africa. Usually there is some commotion on the onion market. Now it is just rumbling along and no one seems to want to take a real position.
All in all, it is actually stable in the onions, which is usually the most volatile market for arable farmers. Growers are gradually giving some supply and packers can fill the days without too much trouble. There has been a fragile balance for a few weeks now and neither growers nor packers feel the need to shake the tree hard. What some exporters are a bit concerned about is the demand from Africa. For the better, more should go in that direction.
Senegalese enigma
Bad weather is not reserved for the Netherlands alone. Senegal has had to deal with severe weather in recent days. The Senegalese agency for Civil Aviation and Meteorology (ANACIM) even issued a weather warning for the entire country for 9 and 10 October due to showers with heavy rains in places. For onion growers, these are certainly not ideal conditions for sowing the onions that will have to be harvested in February, March and April. The wish may be the father of the thought, but that could mean that Senegal will keep the border open for onions for longer. The procedures for opening and closing the border are not always easy to follow, to put it mildly, and these are assumptions without guarantees that are being made, some insiders warn.
De DCA quotation onion bale price remains fairly stable this week. Larger sizes are generally harder to come by. When 50-70 is rolled, hardly any coarse comes out of a batch of rolls and there is a relatively large share of triplets. 45-65 for the middles would fit better, but then again not all customers want to go along with that, which is reflected in the price.
Read here is the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.