The mood is and remains a peculiar thing. The euphoria that reigned supreme in the onion trade a month ago is now largely gone, especially among sorters. It's now a matter of searching for a bottom in the market. With the steps being taken by the DCA Bale Price Onion Authority, we should reach it soon, if all goes well.
Dry and sunny weather without tropical temperatures. You couldn't ask for better weather for harvesting and loading onions. With onion sets generally being quite early this year, it's understandable that a lot of onion production is happening these days. Of course, those onions first have to be ready for the drying wall before they can be processed.
There's little buying interest among sorters. Now that the bale price, in particular, is taking a significant hit, the desire to buy in bulk has completely vanished. "What seemed like a reasonable price a week and a half ago now costs a fortune," says one sorter. It's mainly the middles that should get sales going. This isn't surprising in itself, according to several insiders. It's still mid-July, and according to exporters, you never do large volumes before then. The sharp drop in onion prices isn't exactly helping demand either. In a declining market, buyers wait, because everything bought later is cheaper.
Growers keep their spirits up
Growers are in a very different position than processors. There's not much demand from processors. This doesn't make sellers nervous, and if you're looking to buy, it won't be easy to snag a good plot for €20 this week, according to several insiders. Whether that's wise is another matter. Last year, the Goes onion set listing started a week earlier and at a slightly lower price. Prices dropped rapidly that year, even though seed onions weren't early then. That's a normal phenomenon. It's always a matter of finding a level, especially early in the season, that will allow exports to catch up. If that train starts moving, the mood in the onion market can change in an instant.
The DCA Bale price is taking a significant hit this week. Sales of triplets and middles are slow, and at various sorters, that's about half of what comes out of a batch of field crops. Coarse and supersizes are selling much better, but are also being dragged down by the difficulties with the finer sizes. Some consider €25 a bit of a magic number where sales are likely to pick up. If we continue at this pace, we'll reach that mark next week.
Read here is the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.