In 1995, Piet and Jacco van Liere decided to expand their arable farm with a cold room, a store room, a sorting station and a packing station for onions. “Initially, the idea was to only add value to our own onions, but that immediately went well and before we knew it we were buying more cells. In 2002 we moved to our current premises on the industrial estate, and in 2004, with the taking-over of knowledge and knowhow of Flevotrade Dronten, we also picked up our own export,” Piet van Liere explains. He is personally responsible for sales, while brother Jacco is in charge of the arable farm. Nowadays Flevotrade Dronten exports about 100,000 onions annually.
Switch to export
Onions take up about 80 per cent of the total volume at Flevotrade. In addition, the company cultivates and trades potatoes and carrots, supplemented with service items such as cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac and parsnip. Flevotrade’s sales team consists of five people and the products are exported globally. “We do not supply supermarkets. We do have some clientele in the processing industry, but our focus is on export,” Van Liere says. He does not regret the switch to take up their own export. “I also see this trend with other companies. It is just an advantage when you know the history of the product you are selling. We now choose, especially for quality markets, certain sections for certain destinations.”
Losing the Russian market was also noticeable in the onion export. “It is not even that Russia stopped ordering from the Netherlands, but we now see other eastern European countries becoming more focused on their own country and on European destinations. Looking back, even more onions went to Russia from these countries than we thought,” Van Liere continues. “We used to see that export was difficult during the first half of the season, but that it went smoothly during the second half. Nowadays, partly as a result of the Russian boycott, it is the other way around. On the other hand, the boycott has broadened our outlook, and new markets are coming in view.”
Brazil
Last year, for example, Brazil saved the Dutch onion season. “The land was always in the books, but with relatively small volumes. Last year enormous volumes went to Brazil, and this year we are also in line to export more than 100,000 tonnes. I expect Brazil will become a structural market, but we can only export pure quality onions to Brazil. One condition is that the sector, from cultivation to export, continues to work hard on quality. The fact is that Dutch onions are substantially varied in quality every year, and there are many countries just waiting to take over part of our export. We will have to start cultivating with more of an objective. A neighbouring country such as the United Kingdom, where most cultivation is meant for supermarkets, already shows they are willing to, for example, harvest at different times in order to meet the buyers’ specifications.”
Quality pays off
“Those efforts for quality are then more profitable financially, this season we also saw that the quality onions for Brazil are sold at higher prices. Efforts for quality are then clearly rewarded. We also see this with potatoes, for that matter. For export, they are often sold as either red-peeled or white-peeled, but I expect we will supply increasingly often on strain or application,” Van Liere says. Optical sorting technology for potatoes was introduced years ago. “But with potatoes the difference is black and white, and with onions, with their many skins and layers, that is much more difficult. We closely follow the developments, but currently the technology is not advanced enough yet to mechanically read and sort them. But that technology is definitely coming and it will immediately put us into a 24-hour economy.”
Piet van Liere feels positive about the future of the Dutch onion export. “We have the lowest possible cost price globally, we are incredibly strong in that. With two international ports close by we can supply the entire world with onions in a short time. But a condition is that we raise the quality to a higher level. My expectation is that much will change in the onion export globally. In the past there were many ad hoc customers, but I think we will go to more permanent cooperations, and that uncoordinated work will disappear.”
Chain concept
“In the past our sector sometimes appeared to make scoring off and working against others into an art from, but while it might seem tempting to go for quick profits, it holds no value long-term. I expect more permanent relationships between cultivator-exporter and buyer. We operate on the principle of one customer per market and we build a chain with that customer. For example, everyone knows who my biggest customer in Africa is, but no one will come between us. To us, the chain concept has proven its value, because we have only grown in recent years,” Van Liere concludes.
