Printed reactions from exporters to the onion harvest estimate, which Statistics Netherlands published on Tuesday morning, October 31. Never before has such a large amount of seed onions been produced in the Netherlands. Boerenbusiness gauges the responses.
Some exporters are not surprised and expected the large quantity after they saw how many onions they received. Especially from the north. For others, the estimate larger than they themselves had estimated. With the most seed onions produced in history, 1,513 million tons, a larger volume of onions will have to be exported. However, exporters wonder whether that will work.
On the edge
"Even though exports are continuing reasonably well at the moment, it is just a lot," says an exporter, who points out that we have already been on the edge in recent years. One exporter responds more positively with: "It will still be quite a challenge", than another who: "I wouldn't know how the sector would manage it. Given the extra volume last year, it seems impossible to me to do all that." export." According to him, the result of this is low prices.
Poor quality limited in sales channels
Much also depends on how quality develops in the coming months. Things couldn't have been better last year, but this season there were rumors early on about acid, rot and thrips. Many parties suffered from the bad weather. This means that the amount of tare increases. One exporter thinks that as much as 15% of the gross proceeds can be taken off. Yet that is not necessarily good news, because quality problems will work against us, because many countries will be eliminated. "If they no longer want our onions, they will go to someone else. The Far East in particular wants good quality, otherwise they will drop out."
Opportunities in Europe
Brazil is also not an option, because the South American country seems to have a good harvest itself for the time being. The countries that suffered from hurricanes Harvey and Irma may become buyers of onions. These are not large quantities, but more than usual, that is the expectation of exporters.
Furthermore, Europe may offer opportunities: Germany, Spain and France have some problems. Eastern Europe may also enter the market later in the season. There will be more clarity about this in 2 months, but the fact is that we will have to put our shoulders to the wheel this year.
Harvest estimate for CBS seed onions... we didn't see them coming here. We didn't see them growing here either... and they weren't in the shed.#onions #harvest17
— Stefaan Van Haecke (@SHaecke) October 31, 2017