With the start of the 2025 growing season, the areas of yellow and red onions seem to be in flux. The official figures for the area in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany are still pending. As DCA Market Intelligence, we have gauged the impressions of market parties and are coming up with an initial area forecast for the 2025 harvest.
In recent years, onion cultivation has been an attractive crop for many growers, yielding good results. However, cultivation is increasingly facing major challenges, including disease pressure and the restriction of the use of crop protection products. Furthermore, there are cultivation areas in the Netherlands where growers switch to other crops due to limited irrigation options, or revert to the cultivation of plant onions. Even in the real onion cultivation areas such as Flevoland, the challenges are great due to, among other things, increasingly common soil diseases and fusarium.
Although the last onions of 2024 are for very high prices have been traded (up to €50), the majority of onions were sold for lower prices last year, which also influenced the choice that growers made in their construction plan. Emerging cultivation areas in countries such as Germany and Belgium have shown growth in onion cultivation in recent years. Whether this will continue depends partly on the price formation.
Germany
In recent years, cultivation in Germany has also become increasingly popular. Potato growers in particular are taking a step towards onion cultivation, because they do not have to invest much in terms of mechanization. Furthermore, there is often already storage available on the farm. In recent years, the area of onions has therefore been on the rise. Last year, onion cultivation in Germany increased by 23,8% compared to 2022 to an area of 17.700 ha. This was a record for Germany. The increase for this year is expected to be less dramatic. According to various sources, a number of growers dropped out at the last moment due to the moderate balance of land last year. Nevertheless, an increase in the area in Germany is expected to be 3 to 6%.
Belgium
Belgium has also discovered onion cultivation in recent years, although it is only a small player in terms of the cultivated area, compared to the Netherlands and Germany. In 2023, 5.900 hectares were cultivated and this rose to 2024 hectares in 6.500 (an increase of more than 10%). However, here too, the growth in the area will not really continue for the coming year and insiders expect the area to remain the same as in 2024. There are quite a few reports that 2 to 5% of the plots have now 'failed' due to the dry spring, which is why growers have chosen to drive out the onions and sow corn. The expectation is that the onion area in Belgium will shrink by around 2 to 4%.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands is the major player in onion cultivation in Europe and has dominated the market and export of this product for decades. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the area, partly due to the development of new cultivation areas in Drenthe, Groningen and recently Brabant. After a dip in the area in 2022, the area rose to 38.700 hectares last year.
This year the increase does not seem to continue and DCA Market Intelligence expects the area to shrink considerably. The yellow onions will probably shrink by 4 to 7%. The expectation of shrinkage of the area of red onions due to lack of seed doesn't seem to be coming true.'Beware of that which is not', however, remains the proverb here too, because through all kinds of channels more red onions have been sown than in the previous harvest year. The estimates are now a growth of 2 to 5%, although it should be noted that seed has also been used (of all day lengths) that is not really suitable for the Dutch cultivation areas. That can also temper the yield expectation for 2025.