"Purchasing sales ratio lost in onion market"

It's relatively calm on the onion market at the moment, and a number of packaging stations are even still. "There are a few orders from Europe, but it's not busy. South America, especially Brazil, who was the main atmosphere maker until now, is also buying less," says Martijn van Damme of Dacomex from Sint-Maartendijk. "You can imagine that the ratio between purchasing and sales is lost at the moment. The price at the farmer is still around 10 Euro. Normally, a decrease in price would be realistic, but as long as the trade keeps a short stock, there is still some demand from the farmer from time to time. The price won't go up any more anyway, but we don't expect a huge decrease right away. The supply from the grower will increase as time goes on."

The medium sorting is especially problematic, as the current price level of 10/10.50 Euro isn't enough to cover the costs. "A number of weeks ago there was still a good demand from Brazil for large sizes, which could compensate for the loss on the side of the medium sorting, but the demand for coarse onions has dropped severely. The Russian embargo was a well known fact, but of course it doesn't help give the demand an impulse. Spain is buying almost nothing, and Germany and France also have enough onions," Martijn sums. "The quality of the onion is generally good. It's up to the farmers who still have some stock to figure out what to do with their onions - and the quality and size - on the short term."

For more information:
Dacomex
Provincialeweg 46
Sint-Maartensdijk
Tel: 0031 (0) 166-662550
Fax :0031 (0) 166-664260
martijn@dacomex.nl
www.dacomex.nl