Onions are a staple vegetable familiar to every consumer. The onion market is vast and onions have steady market prospects, which means that farmers all over the country are keen to enter this industry. They all produce onions on a large scale. Shandong in particular is one of the largest onion production areas in China. Farmers in Shandong have fields ranging from a single hectare to several tens of hectares each.They harvest hundreds of tons every year and they generally do not have to worry about sales difficulties.
However, when the harvest period arrived this year, farmers became anxious about the possibility that they would experience sales difficulties and suffer financial loss. The current sales volume and the current price of Chinese onions are both far below the regular levels of the last few years.
Last year the onion market did better than in previous years. The main reason for this improvement was a drought in India, which severely reduced the onion production volume in India. Since India is both the largest onion producer in the world and one of the largest consumers of onions, this drought had a significant impact on the onion markets in many countries across the globe.
Many countries shifted their attention from India to China to secure onion supply. One example is Japan, where market demand for onions is relatively high. China began to export large volumes of onions to Japan and still the price showed a continuous rise. Farmers earned much more than in previous years. Chinese onion export to Japan is now growing smaller, which caused a situation where demand exceeds supply and the price continues to rise.
Source: Jinri Toutiao