The supply of onions with quality issues is putting pressure on the market and leading to lower prices. At the same time, growers are holding onto good batches in anticipation of demand. Read more about the onion market and quality differences.
Besides how large the onions are, quality remains a very important factor that makes or breaks you as a grower. The wet batches with, for example, fusarium or bacterial rot are pretty much off the market by now. It is mainly sprouting and bareness that are coming through. The fact that it is getting warmer outside doesn't really help matters. In the shed, you can still inhibit sprouting somewhat by keeping them cool. If the onions are delivered in nice sunshine and sit at the processor's for a while, then it's a disaster. Regularly cutting and discarding them as soon as you see a yellow tip is practically the only thing you can do as a grower, according to insiders. Yet there remains a group of growers who are lax about this and only take action when some green is sticking out of the top of the onion.
Baldness is certainly no longer a problem confined to onions from sandy soil. Problematic batches are also coming through from clay soil, according to insiders. Onions harvested at very high temperatures and that also lay long in the swaths last summer are vulnerable, according to an insider.
The more or less compelling supply of onions is creating market sentiment to a certain extent. The movement is not shocking, but regional exchanges lowered quotations. Grof at Emmeloord is the exception, but there the range was broadened.
In practice, onions on the borderline or just below class II are often sold for less. According to traders, €5 or €6 for a decent batch with few or no large onions is also acceptable. If there is really something wrong with them, it is difficult to find a buyer for finer onions. Larger ones are easier to sell, but insiders say there are plenty of peeling facilities to choose from.
Is there anything left in the barrel?
At the other end of the spectrum are growers with perfect onions, whether or not in mechanical cooling. With all the stories about quality problems, the prevailing mood there is much more: 'let's just see if we get a resurgence right at the end, just like last season'.
Statistics Netherlands (CBS) calculated a seed onion yield of 1,7 million tonnes. Subtract 20% for losses, and with the 1,1 million tonnes already exported, approximately 20.000 tonnes per week would need to be shipped in the final quarter of the season. That is a lot for this time of year, but the export figures from the last few weeks are encouraging. Add to that the fact that there are still some quality issues here and there, and it is entirely understandable that growers with perfect onions are stuck in the game.