When we talk to Carl van de Wiel of Agro Centre Holland, he’s busy sorting red, Indian onions. “A last resort,” the onion packer explains. “Compared to yellow onions, there are hardly any Dutch, red onions for sale anymore, but you want to be able to serve your customers. Earlier this season, I worked with red onions from China, and that went well, but I don’t trust that quality anymore.”
“The quality of the Indian onions is good. There’s no mould, decay or pests. However, these aren’t onions that can be stored for months,” Carl continues. He sells the onions to wholesalers and peeling stations within Europe, primarily Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy and Eastern Europe. “But demand from Eastern bloc countries is only now getting in its stride, which is quite late.”
This week, the first Chilean yellow onions will arrive at Agro Centre Holland, and these are followed by yellow and red onions from Egypt in April. “There’s demand, but mostly for large sizes, which are in short supply,” Carl says. It’s also calm in pink onions, with which he’s active as well. “When the onions are expensive you’re sometimes faced with the remarkable phenomenon that people forget about those onions. That’s how pink onions slipped from people’s minds a bit now.”
The market for shallots is also dull and expensive. “We’ll have these until June, but shallots are expensive with prices around 1.50 euro. That puts a damper on demand,” Carl explains. “All in all, it’s an interesting market with a lot of challenges. You could make a profit because of these high prices, but you could also lose a lot of money.”
“I think there’s definitely a chance that prices for yellow onions will drop considerably at the end of the season because everyone’s working with alternatives. It doesn’t often happen that prices end high after an expensive season. It’s different for red onions, because these are scarce everywhere, and import is desperately needed.”
For more information:
Carl van de Wiel
Agro Centre Holland
Noordseweg 11
4772 PG Langeweg, the Netherlands
Tel: +31 168 37 12 30
Fax: +31 168 37 12 35
info@red-onion.com
www.red-onion.com