'Supply an onion product that someone else cannot'

De Boerenbusiness This year, Crop Tour will follow 8 plots with yellow seed onions in the Netherlands. Every week we ask an onion grower about the plot, his choices and vision. This week it is arable farmer Martijn Derikx from Ysselsteyn (Limburg). In addition to seed onions, he grows potatoes, chicory and peonies.

The Crop Tour plot in Ysselsteyn was the first to be sown, how are the sowing onions doing?
'The seed onions are looking great. The plot was sown on March 23 and the first pipe is now at least 3 to 4 centimeters. This is also the case with this plot, because the goal is to be very early with the harvest. Weed control is going well. This year we have the advantage that the crop protection products work well, that was different last year with the poor soil. The emergence of the seed onions is also excellent.'

Which varieties do you grow on the company?
'We grow different varieties of yellow, pink and red seed onions. We grow Barito on the Crop Tour plot. We grow this variety because Barito is really a first. It is one of the earliest yellow seed onions available. Our goal is to deliver onions from 1 August. Barito is capable of that. What we have noticed is that the quality of the variety is not good for storage. We have not grown Barito for several years. There was more demand for a variety that, in addition to an early ripening time, also had better storage properties. But with other varieties you will notice that you are at least a week behind with delivery. I don't want that, so we are growing the Barito variety again. And if we deliver these onions first, the storage properties will also matter less.'

What strategy do you use when selling onions?
'You have to deliver a product that no one else can. For us, that means delivering seed onions on average a week earlier. We have 60 hectares of onions and therefore also grow other types of onions, such as early onions, onion sets and long-storage onions. Every period we get rid of something, you create your own pool, as it were. We can store a large part in our box storage of 1.400 boxes. We also have the space to dump onions in bulk, often for shorter storage.' 

Why are you joining the Boerenbusiness Crop tour?
'This is my second year participating in the Crop Tour. The interaction with the other growers really appeals to me. We exchange knowledge and there is sometimes discussion about certain topics, about why some people do it that way and others don't. Put simply, I just like that.'

Jesse Torringa

Jesse is an editor at Boerenbusiness and focuses in particular on the arable farming sector, including grain and onions. He also closely follows the fertilizer market. In addition, Jesse works on an arable farm in Groningen with seed potatoes as the main branch.

j.torringa@boerenbusiness. Nl

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.