"Dutch trade in onions bad at the moment"

The short-lived upturn in the onion market is a thing of the past. "There was increased demand from Brazil and from Africa for Ramadan at the same time, but sales are bad again," says Rene Tiggelman, Export Manager at Handelsmaatschappij Van Langevelde in Kruiningen. "Brazil is shortly going to have its own harvest and not much is going to Africa. Boat space is also limited."

He also has very little confidence that there will be a revival in the market. "I cannot imagine where a large demand will come from this season. This means we have a problem in the second half of the season. In the past, this was covered by demand from Russia, and over the last two years, but there is no structural customer. Onion farming is expanding worldwide with customers like Senegal aiming to have their own crops available on a weekly basis.

"Fortunately the first half of the season was not too bad, but that changed in December. Wholesale prices are now at around the 6-cent level for medium and rough, so earning are very low. Some stubborn farmers are also still holding on to their stock, hoping it will be worth something", continues the export manager. "Furthermore, we are packing onions from New Zealand, but that is also slow. German supermarkets usually stop buying in early May, but there has been a delay of a couple of weeks on the line. Lastly, there are enough German onions and the Dutch season was also good in terms of quantity."

For more information:
Rene Tiggelman
Van Langevelde Handelsmij
Stationsweg 4d
4416 PJ Kruiningen
T +31 113 38 26 00
F +31 113 38 31 95
rene@javala.nl