High prices & calm demand among growers at start of onion season

There is a good atmosphere among farmers on the onion market, but the export is still calm. "There isn't too much demand, but there is also little supply, so it's reasonably well balanced. Prices are at a high level, but it's still far too early to make any conclusions. The seeding onion harvest has hardly started. It has gone badly before with high prices early in the season," says William Nannes of J.P. Beemsterboer.

"Senegal isn't open yet and there is no sign of a decision. There was a meeting regarding potatoes on Monday, but there are enough of them locally as well. There is now talk of market opening towards the Tabaski holiday, but this is all speculation," says William. "Other countries aren't fully demanding either. There is some export to Ivory Coast, which didn't really stop and there are some shipments going to Central America, but other than that it's very calm." 

"We don't supply within Europe, but judging from the calls I received from packagers, they aren't busy either," according to William. Prices are slightly stuck at the moment according to the exporter. "The small sizes are slightly under pressure with a level around 23 cents, the 40-60 sorting foes for 25 cents and this goes up to around 28 cents for the 50-70 and 30 cents for the 60-80. The grower is comfortable. Time will tell whether they are right to be so."