The onion market is showing a wide price range due to significant quality differences, while sales remain sluggish. Supply is becoming available and the industry is selecting carefully. Read more about pricing and sales in the onion market.
The Emmeloord exchange caused some surprise, particularly among traders, by raising the upper end of the 60% coarse category from €14 to €14,50. A price of €14 or more for direct delivery is somewhat of an exception for a very fine lot, often including all the necessary paperwork for retail. The lower end of the regional exchanges stands at €10 for the 30-60% coarse. In practice, according to insiders, growers with finer onions on the edge of class 2 also accept an offer below €10. In that regard, a range of €7 to €15 might be fairer to the market. For a generally good cell of coarse onions, the price remains fairly stable at around €12 to €13.
Onion supply is starting to pick up a bit. Physiologically, the onions are ahead. Except for a few days next week, the weather forecast does not show really warm weather, but some growers feel they shouldn't push the limits. There is not much confidence that the onion market will really turn around in the coming weeks. You also haven't heard from the group that was enthusiastically proclaiming a few weeks ago that onions would automatically become more expensive towards the end of the season. However, a small gap might still appear towards the end of the season, considering what is currently being sold off more or less under duress.
Only the rough bills
Selling onions with a story is difficult. The industry does buy, but they have plenty of choice. They want the coarse ones, provided they aren't too expensive. They ignore the finer batches. Meanwhile, there are also Dutch processors trying their hand at coarser yellow batches with a story, but which are actually still usable. Depending on color and quality, €8 to €12 is paid for the 60 mm size. The undersized onions are then settled at cost price or bale price. Incidentally, this has been done for red onions for quite some time. In practice, this means for growers that the undersized onions likely yield nothing. As a grower, it might feel a bit friendlier, but in practice, the bottom line will be comparable to, say, €4 or €5 gross net for Polish onions.