These are not the busiest weeks of the year for Dutch onion sorters. If the order books are not completely full, some people get a bit nervous. Somewhat hesitant behavior with the occasional strange outlier characterizes the onion market this week.
Confidence in the onion market is not very high this season. We have almost forgotten it, but at the beginning of July, up to around €25 was paid for the early plant onions. That dropped back to around €10 to €12 for the last onions from the field in October. After that, the price did rise again, but from November until now there have not been many opportunities for growers to sell onions for more than €16 to €17 for direct delivery. The development of the grower's price matches the bale price fairly well. There was sometimes a week in between when it did not fit, but then a correction of one of the two followed shortly afterwards.
The onions bought in advance or the contracted ones turn out to have been the most expensive onions for most sorters in retrospect. Of course, that says nothing about what awaits us later in the season, but it does make buyers cautious. Better not to burn their fingers again. There are also no real worries that it will be very lean on the supply side in the coming months. Both growers and sorters are realistic and do not get on each other's nerves. Partly because not every batch can be stored equally well, there is also always some supply of onions. If it is a bit quiet in the export, like this week, then the mood is also very lukewarm.
Unrest
On the processing side, some sorters are trying to outdo each other to get the limited orders mainly their way. However, this does not have much effect on the total export. Dutch onions are already quite competitive and if another cent is lost, foreign buyers will not order any extra containers. It is mainly stirring up unrest within the Dutch onion sector.
The DCA Bale price onions is taking another step back this week. There is certainly no reason to panic and the decline remains limited enough that buyers will not postpone their orders as long as possible. For the general mood it would be nice if the price stabilizes or perhaps even takes a step up according to various traders.
Read here is the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.