Based on seed sales from various companies, it's difficult to accurately predict the onion acreage in 2026, especially since the big players announced a sales freeze early on due to a seed shortage.
This was also the case last year. Especially for red onions, it was assumed that the acreage would not increase by 2025. There was therefore considerable surprise when, in the end, a 35% increase was achieved. For yellow onions, the expectations were in line with actual practice, although the acreage was slightly lower.
Smaller stocks put pressure on the area
Normally, seed companies have ample seed available. However, seed production faced challenges in 2024 and again in 2025. Last year, this was partially offset by leftover stock. That's not the case this year, so seed sellers have to make do with the amount of seed available from the last harvest.
And that wasn't a big deal. Especially not for certain varieties. The early and mid-early segments, in particular, yielded fewer seeds for certain varieties, explains Bart Schriever, Benelux sales manager at De Groot & Slot. As a result, the seed distributor had to disappoint some growers. "These growers unfortunately couldn't receive their desired first choice."
All in all, market leader De Groot & Slot has roughly the same amount of seed available as last year. This includes some lower-quality seed lots. This seed is slightly less germinable. The advice for these latter lots is to sow slightly more densely to achieve the desired number of plants.
Hazera indicates that it is delivering a few percent less onion seed this year. Based on this, the acreage certainly won't increase, but the company also says there's no significant decline.
Not a sales freeze everywhere
Syngenta didn't experience a sales freeze and actually saw an increase in the share of onion seed it sold. At the same time, Syngenta emphasizes that it is a relatively small player in the onion seed market. Together with a few other players, it represents approximately 25% of the total market. Within that segment, Syngenta reports a slight increase in demand for onion seed, which could indicate a slightly larger acreage within that group.
Market rumors suggest that another surprising development in the acreage (particularly for red onions) this year seems unlikely. Many red onion varieties imported from abroad last year are currently causing significant quality problems in storage.
This primarily concerns short-day segment varieties, developed for warmer growing regions, where the focus is on rapid sales rather than long-term storage. The problems are particularly evident in bald and soft onions, making sales of these foreign varieties very difficult at the moment.
In conclusion
All in all, the area of seed onions appears to remain relatively stable or increase very slightly in 2026. This initially applies to yellow seed onions. There may still be some growth for red onions. Sales of red seed onions were expected to collapse this season due to the larger harvest, but prices have surprisingly remained stable.
Red onions are certainly not inferior to yellow onions in terms of prices. That was the expectation this season. Therefore, there's a chance that the acreage will increase slightly in the coming season.