The onion market is currently characterised as a dull and expensive market. “Demand is incredibly limited, and prices of growers are at such a level that it’s not worth bothering with. A number of packers aren’t working either, because no profit can be made,” says Martijn van Damme of Dacomex in Sint-Maartensdijk, the Netherlands.
“There’s only some demand from Europe, such as the UK, and some is sent to Germany, but they’ll soon switch to imported onions,” Martijn continues. “Additionally, some smaller volumes of onions are sent to Eastern Europe, mostly batches with some deficiencies. But prices for better onions are so high, nearly all destinations dropped out. Cheaper alternatives can be found nearly everywhere.”
“You currently pay 40 to 46 cent to farmers for good onions, with a bale price of 43/44 cent for medium sizes. The slightly poorer quality batches sold to Eastern Europe are selling for prices between 30 and 35 cent. Qualitatively good batches are still in supply. However, few transactions are currently being made.”
“Quite a bit of speculation occurred because of the Ramadan, after all, more volume is traditionally bought by Africa because of the Ramadan. Orders for the start of the Ramadan have now been shipped, but these export volumes were still a bit disappointing. All in all, it’s fortunate demand remains limited regarding the bad margins, balance between buying and selling is currently completely lost,” Martijn concludes.
For more information:
Dacomex
Provincialeweg 46
Sint-Maartensdijk, the Netherlands
Tel: +31 166 66 25 50
Fax :+31 166 66 42 60
info@dacomex.nl
www.dacomex.nl