Despite a lower production of onions in Egypt this season, Gehan ElSheref, executive manager of Agro Best, feels they’ll be able to supply onions for a long time to come: “The onion crop is one of the important export crops in Egyptian trade. This year, we started our fresh golden onion season from mid-February. Our onions find their way to our customers in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East. Hopefully, soon we’ll also export to African markets. We’ll be able to supply the onions even when the season is over, as we have the facilities to keep the onions in good condition during the off-season.”
The lower production for onions in Egypt can be attributed to farmers switching towards other crops, after a bad season last year, ElSheref explains. “The main problem this onion season is the lack of production. Production is about 60 per cent lower than it was last year. This is mostly due to farmers changing crops on their farm, and they now grow wheat because of the issues Ukraine had with their wheat production. This, combined with an onion season that wasn’t great, with lower sales prices than the costs of production, made it an easy choice for a lot of these farmers. As a result, the volumes are much lower this year and prices are higher.”
The lack of available onions isn’t just an Egyptian problem, most European countries see it as well: “Meanwhile, there is also a shortage of production in Europe, as producing countries are dealing with a lack of water. This means there is good demand and as a company we’ll keep loading our onions to our customers, while doing our best to keep the prices very reasonable. This year it’s not so much a season of major competition, but mostly a season of who can get the product on the market. I expect demand to remain strong for the remainder of the season,” ElSheref concludes.
