This year's production (2018/19) of overwinter onions finally comes to an end. In Croatia there are around 100 hectares of overwinter onions and there is around 60 hectares of hybrids and rest consists of open pollination (OP) varieties.One trader from Croatia claims the season is finally starting to look good after some challenging periods.
"After the sowing of onions, which is done between the end of August until middle of September, the soil was too dry and the preparation was very hard. As a result the growers had to irrigate immediately after sowing. A dry period lasted from September right up to the beginning of April, with mild temperatures, high above average winter temperatures." says Arian Shala, who works for Croatian distribution company Zeleni Hit.
"After this period the weather changed dramatically. It started to rain and from April until the middle of May we had above 300 l/m2 of rain in most production areas. This is more than 50-60% of the total mm of rain in average for whole year," Shala explains. "Together with this huge amount of rain we had low temperatures, averaging 10-14°C for about 4-5 weeks, and plant protection for Peronospora was difficult to carry on."
Even though the weather conditions were challenging, the crops did not wait for better times: "During this cold and rainy period the onions started flowering especially on OP varieties and some of the varieties was infected with bacterial diseases like Pseudomonas. This cold and rainy period lasted until the beginning of June and after that another extreme period followed, with high temperatures and high sun radiation that helps to dry out the onions."
Now that the onions are in good shape, Zeleni can look forward to better times: "The harvest started two weeks later and the price was very good from 40-60 euro cents for 1 kg, so finally the sun also started to shine upon overwinter onion growers in Croatia. We all hope that the price will remain stable after the big shortage of onions last year and big problems in production of overwinter onion in the whole of Southeast Europe." Shala concludes.
For more information:
Arian Shala
Zeleni Hit d.o.o.
Tel: +385992513991
Email: [email protected]
www.zeleni-hit.hr
