Calm has returned to the onion market after a large amount of export in the first half of the season. "As a sector we had a fantastic presentation until week 5/6 with average export figures of over 23-24,000 tonnes per week. Now that Africa has dropped out we are missing a volume market. Normally we would have Russia to take over, but now we are dependent on destinations elsewhere in the world. Last year we were saved by an extreme demand from Brazil, but we will have to concentrate on new sales areas in the second half of the season," says Chayenne Wiskerke of Wiskerke Onions.
"Others may see it as a threat, but I mainly see it as a fantastic challenge. The opportunities are there. There will be a larger demand for imported onions in East Africa and South Africa due to the drought and a market like China, when the trade treaties are finalised, also has a lot of potential for Dutch onions," continues Chayenne. "The difficult part is that the quality isn't fantastic this season and the onions are relatively expensive. Last year we had exceptional quality and the price was at half or a third of the price we are making at the moment. A lot of countries were scared by the competitive power of Dutch onions and that explains why multiple countries now have import restrictions such as Panama and Colombia to protect the local growers. We will have to work hard to realise enough sales in this half of the season."
Brazil
"Europe is starting to demand, but not large volumes yet. There is also some demand from Brazil, but those volumes are also limited. Last year we realised some solid sales in Brazil with quality onions, due to which both supermarkets and wholesale markets now prefer the Dutch quality. But in all honesty we are looking hard to be able to supply the premium quality. The quality of the Argentinian onions isn't optimal and growers and exporters want to get rid of their onions quickly as the shelf life of the onions isn't great. This puts the Brazilian market under extra pressure," continues Chayenne. "There also isn't a market that can take large volumes from the middle sorting and this is a structural problem for many Dutch packagers."
"In the part of the season we had weeks with 30,000+ tonnes of export and everyone was running at full capacity. Now the export figures are between 15,000 and 18,000 tonnes, we are basically running at half power and there is overcapacity. This has a negative influence on the market. We continue to run but the market is out of balance and this is pressuring the prices,' continues the exporter. "You see companies are shorter in sales. On one hand this is to do with the quality as it is difficult to buy on the long term, but on the other hand there is the unstable demand. There is no extreme stock among packagers. The same goes for red onions, which there hasn't been a lot of trade in so far, but now has more activity. The shallot export is good, with relatively higher prices compared to the last two seasons with the result of prices going up in France as well."
"There was a lot of atmosphere until week 4, but now we have to keep momentum, as we still have a good volume to go. But I am remaining positive, as there are certainly opportunities. We are too dependent on there being problems in certain markets across the world in the second season. We used to be able to lean on the Russian market, but now we have to find new markets," concludes Chayenne.
