“We have a very large onion harvest in Brazil, depressing prices on the domestic market. The only states affected are São Paulo, Goiás and Minas Gerais states. Santa Catarina on the other hand, isn´t in the harvesting period at the moment. This is the biggest producing region, and their season is expected to start between November and December. Due to the possibility of the weather phenomenon "El Niño", rains can be intense in Santa Catarina state during the crop's month”, confirms the onion market specialist Marina Marangon from Cepea, Brazil. This stands for The Association of Exhibitors of Business and Cultural Promotion.
Dutch press outlet, the Boerderij, recently published an article, explaining that this big harvest was depressing the prices to a level lower than the production costs. It also contained the information that this has led to some exports to Argentina and Paraguay. These are important developments to keep an eye on for the onion exporters in the Netherlands, as Brazil is the biggest import market in South America for Dutch onions.
As Marina confirms the big harvest, she emphasises that the harvest of the affected regions will be finalized until the end of October. “The producer´s strategy in Minais Gerais and Goias is to store some onion volumes, in order to avoid selling at these very low prices. However, their bulbs can´t be stocked for a long time as the onion variety produced in these states isn´t really suitable for storage.”
In addition, she mentions that the onions produced from the above mentioned regions, including Santa Catarina are mostly for the domestic market. “Exports are very low and these regions don´t really contribute to this outflow. However, imports tend to be lower in general. Brazil normally imports big volumes from the Netherlands. This isn´t necessary due to the high national supply, besides Brazil has to pay taxes now on imports from the European Union.”