The assessment made by a seed company reports one thousand hectares of onions more than last year in central-northern Italy. "The high quotations of the past few months are deceiving producers, who are hoping to reach high prices in the next campaign too. We have registered a one thousand hectare increase considering the seeds we have sold, so we hope everything will go well."
However, for things to go well, they should go as they went this year, i.e. little produce from northern Europe. Otherwise, we risk getting the same prices as 2017 with an average of 8 eurocents per kg.
"Demand for golden onions has been very lively, maybe because they are the ones that sold better this year leading to increased profits and also because they are very much in demand abroad too. But it will be the market to decide whether to increase cultivated areas so much has been wise."
Then again, producers do not have many alternatives: the initial investment for onions is not very high (around €2,000/ha or even less) and unless huge mistakes are made, yields are always satisfactory.