“Smooth onion sales in the Netherlands, but prices unyielding”

The onion trade is currently quite busy. “Africa in particular has much demand, but we’re also doing the final onions for this year’s quote for Indonesia, and Central America has also joined the party. All in all, the market is looking well regarding sales, but prices are at a very unyielding level. Prices for triplets are around 10/11 cent, the medium onions are between 11.5 and 12.5 cent, and the price of large onions is about 15 cent,” says Mike de Koster of DWK Onions in Kwadendamme, the Netherlands. 

Last week, the Dutch Central Agency for Statistics (CBS) published in its harvest estimates that the seed onion harvest of 2017 will amount to a total gross yield of 1,513,000 tonnes. “And that was quite an unexpected blow, because that yield is higher than we expected. You then soon start hearing that the count is wrong, and it’s almost unbelievable considering the poor harvests in the southwest of the Netherlands, but the situation in the north and in the polders has been completely different.”

“The main question now is what we’ll have left net. Last year, we had perfect onions with not much tare. But we still have to wait to find out how quality will develop this year,” Mike concludes.