The import season is almost upon Mulder Onions in the Netherlands again. "We're expecting the first New Zealand onions in the second week of March. New Zealand's acreage has shrunk a little, but that effect will be limited. Volumes will be the same, but the onions will be larger. So, there'll be slightly fewer onions available for Europe," Gerard Hoekman says.
"There are, however, certain trends in the different European countries. The import onion season in Spain, for instance, is very short these days. That's because they keep a lot of onions in cold stores. They switch to their own new harvest much earlier than in the past."
"Germany continues importing onions for quite a long time, as does the United Kingdom. They have to wait for their own onion sets to become available. New varieties come and go, even in places like New Zealand. And sometimes old varieties resurface because they prove to be more resistant than new varieties. That keeps happening," Gerard continues.
Mulder Onions doesn't only import onions from New Zealand. They usually get white and red onions from India and white onions from Australia too. "Chilean onions used to be a bigger item in Europe. But now that Spain's extended its season, they've largely taken over that market. Those Chilean onions were also mostly going to caterers and hamburger joints. These markets are struggling because of COVID-19."
The number of Dutch importers is now reasonably divided. "Nowadays, there's a split between supermarkets. Some buy 80% directly from the country of origin. They get importers to fill the gaps. And some let importers do all the initial work," Gerard concludes.
Mulder Onions BV
Hagenroderstraat 32
6464 CP Kerkrade
Tel: 045-5678700
Fax: 045-5678708
gerard@mulder-onions.com
www.mulder-onions.com