First arrival of New Zealand onions for Van der Lans International

The imported onion season has begun again at Van der Lans International. The first containers from New Zealand have arrived at onion sorting and packing station Jonika in Oostdijk, to be followed by the first red New Zealand onions, yellow Tasmanian and white onions from India and mainland Australian. In addition the importer from Baarn still supplies Grano-type onions from Chile.

Export figures show that there have been fewer New Zealand onions coming to Europe over the past year up until now. "Last year New Zealand had a poor season. There were too many exported which resulted in bad prices at the end of the season," said Jan van der Lans. "People are now looking for alternative markets. The Indonesian market and New Zealand market are offering the same sizes as Europe. The focus is to find the New Zealand exporters alternative markets."

According to Jan the outlook is positive for these first onions. "Weather conditions were good and I hear the quality should also be good. The onions arriving these first three weeks are already sold, but those amounts are limited. By mid April the onion import will really be busy." Main buyers for these New Zealand onions are retailers in Benelux, France, Germany and Austria. The UK are traditionally served directly by New Zealand.

Van der Lans says that the market situation of Dutch onions has only limited impact on the market of New Zealand onions. "The price of Dutch onions is a lot higher than last year which makes the switch to imported onions easier, but the import price is always considerably higher. Imported onion are not sold because of price, but because retailers like to offer a new harvest."

For more information:
Van der Lans International B.V.
Jan van der Lans
Gerrit van der Veenlaan 18
3743 DN Baarn
Tel: +3135 6422622
Fax: +3135 6422644
www.vanderlans.com