Chinese onions enter the market in April. Most production areas have begun the harvest season by now. The price of onions in supermarkets is around 2 yuan [0.29 USD] per 0.5 kg. The price nearly doubled in comparison with previous years. The onion market conditions are good this year. There are two main reasons for this development:
Export volume greatly increased
The international export price of onions is relatively high this year. This price increase began in the second half of last year and is still growing today. Several major onion production areas in Asia are doing quite well under these circumstances. China in particular is doing well. The country has a massive production volume of onions. The reason for the high price of onions in the international market is poor weather in Europe, which greatly reduced the overall onion production volume last year. Furthermore, Europe has a great demand for onions. Of course, when the new harvest of onions enters the market, the high onion price will come down. Right now, however, the Chinese onion export volume is high and so is the price. This pulls up the domestic onion price as well.
Overall surface area devoted to onion plantation declined
Onions sold poorly last year and many farmers suffered financial loss. The purchase price fell below 0.1 yuan [0.01 USD] and some farmers suffered as much as 1000 yuan [144.55 USD] per 0.07 hectare. The overall surface area devoted to onion plantation in Shandong and Jiangsu declined by 40% in response to these market conditions. The price naturally increased in response. However, the production volume per hectare also increased by 10% in comparison with 2018, which slightly tempered the price increase.
Source: toutiao.com