That's pretty accurate, to challenging. These are the initial reactions from the onion sector to the final harvest estimate figures for seed onions from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
According to one exporter, the final estimate means that around 20.000 tons of onions will need to be exported per week. Exporting such a volume per week will pose a significant challenge for the second half of the season. There is ample capacity; however, it remains to be seen whether there will be sufficient demand to be able to sell this quantity.
There's often a lot of discussion about the difference between the preliminary and final harvest estimates for seed onions. This year, the differences are much smaller. The final estimate shows the harvest of yellow seed onions to be 20.656 tons higher than the preliminary estimate from October last year. This means the difference remains within 1,5%.
The adjustment has no effect on the final harvest figure; the yellow seed onion harvest remains approximately 1,4 million tons. The yield per hectare is now 54,3 tons. This is over 1 tonne per hectare higher than the preliminary estimate. The harvested area, at 26.775 hectares, is slightly smaller than previously estimated.
The acreage for red onions has also been slightly revised downwards. However, this hardly changes the impression that, against all expectations, there was a significant expansion last year. According to the final estimate, red onions were harvested on 6.244 hectares.
At 48,5 tons per hectare, red onions yield significantly fewer kilos than yellow onions. However, this quantity is 1,8 tons per hectare higher than the preliminary estimate. As a result, total red onion production is 3,3% higher than expected, with a total quantity of just over 300.000 tons.
Total seed onion production is therefore 1,8% higher than previously estimated. The final figure brings the gross harvest to 1,76 million tons. Compared to the preliminary figure, there is approximately 30.000 tons (1,8%) more to sell.