"The onion export sector is finding it increasingly difficult to give growers the ever-rising prices they currently want. Purchase prices were stable for a long time with a slight upward trend. But now, the growers are already pushing up their next week's prices. Large onion bales are selling at around €0.38/€0.39, and the supers for €0.40 to €0.41. Generally, those are substantial prices for our global buyers," says Tim van Haandel of the Dutch company Mulder Onions.
"There are onions leaving, but these high prices have put a damper on exports. Senegal instituted a price ceiling two weeks ago, which immediately affected exports. We've not exported any onions there for the last six weeks. That price ceiling has since been adjusted upwards again, but that doesn't help us much, not with the current price increase."
"Exports to the Far East have been somewhat sluggish since the start of the season. Especially Chinese exporters are creating more competition there. There's demand within Europe, but we're not getting many orders yet. Countries like Poland and the Czech Republic are inquiring, but our onions are priced higher than the local product, so people quickly choose that local product that remains," Tim concludes.
