The trade in onions has come to a complete standstill. Availability of onions plays a role in this, but the effect of the price jumps that we have seen in recent weeks should not be underestimated. The demand for sorted onions remains good for this time of year.
Grower price and bale price do not match. This has been going on for several weeks now and the gap is certainly not getting smaller. For delivery this month, sellers of field crops are asking €45 and for June that will increase to €50. According to insiders, there are not that many growers among those sellers of field crops. Several sorters indicate that they still know of a number of onions that may or may not be in the hands of speculators or fellow sorters. They are in no hurry to sell.
On the buying side, some sorters are now also starting to think it's nice for this season. If you run out of stock or still have a week or two of working stock, you'd better use it up and go into maintenance than to do another round for €45 or €50 with all the risks that entails, some sorters say.
Stretch is running out
The group of sorters that continues to operate is not getting any bigger. That is usually not bad for the bale price. However, that is where the limit comes to some insight. "In recent weeks you asked for an amount with the idea that I probably won't have the order and if it does go through we can earn something from it. Those things often went through too. You don't have to do that this week", according to a sorter. This week there is still some resistance from customers, according to various sorters and exporters. The demand is there, but no longer at any price.
The DCA bale price onions has taken another step up this week. The average bale price is around €44. Triplets and middles are still below or low and the €40. Only for the supermarkets that are few and far between do prices exceed €50.
Read here is the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.