Spanish onion growers and exporters continue to face the uncertainty caused by high domestic prices, the cost of the first Dutch onions, and the import prices of Peruvian sweet onions.
The weather this year has caused a generalized shortage of domestic onions in the Spanish regions of Andalusia and La Mancha. For its part, Valencia, which suffered the impact of catastrophic storms and floods in October, at the time of the sowing season, has not been able to produce its usual early harvests. All of this is causing instability for which there is no end in sight.
"This year, calibers are small and production is scarce, so prices are not dropping below 60 cents, and 65 cents for the larger sizes," says José López, administrator of Murcia Antonio López S.L., a company devoted to the production and sale of 8 million kilos of onions and 1 million kilos of garlic annually.
"For the time being, La Mancha and Andalusia are delivering very little. It is hoped that when the harvesting of the Grano de Oro variety begins in August, prices will stabilize, but not earlier than that," says the manager.
Also, the expected import of sweet onions from Peru in July is unlikely to help in levelling out prices, as those are expensive, and freight prices exceed €5,000. So, in summary, both Peruvian sweet onions and early Spanish onions are expensive," says the administrator.
Faced with this situation, López isn't sure about whether "the market will prefer the expensive onions from Peru or the cheaper ones from Spain, even if they are lacking in terms of caliber and production. Given this uncertainty, we are likely to need large sweet onions from Peru."
Prices could be prevented from increasing too much with the entry of Dutch production. "We hear that they have already started with new onions there, but quantities are small, so prices are reaching 70 cents, which is also expensive. I believe that uncertainty in the onion market is keeping the prices of Spanish, Peruvian, and Dutch onions high."
In Europe, "France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal will be our preferred markets. As far as overseas is concerned, now we are getting calls mainly from the U.S., but our onion exports are mainly going to Brazil, the Caribbean, and Canada, while garlic goes to Jordan and Colombia," says López.
As far as imports are concerned, López says: "We import onions from Peru, Senegal and Egypt, while garlic is imported from China, Chile and Argentina. Spanish garlic is preferred to Chinese garlic, but the latter is gaining a lot of market share because of its price, which is due to low labor costs. The biggest challenge when importing Chinese garlic is keeping germination under control."
For more information:
José López
Murcia Antonio López, S.L.
Tel.: +34 968 613 534
[email protected]
https://mitrini.com