"Enthousiasm for selling onions is very low at the moment"

Selling onions won't make you rich at the moment. "There are some onions leaving, but not to the big destinations. There is some loose cargo going to countries like Libya, Malaysia, the UK and Spain, but it's not big volumes", says Henk Jansen of Arjazon. "I heard from a colleague that they sent two trucks to Russia, but the expectation is that that side will remain silent for the coming two weeks."

There are a lot of quality problems with onions. "But this gives a slightly biased pictures, because it's the onions with lesser quality that we have to sell first", says Henk. "This is our dilemma, because if we get a chance to sell, we want to sell the good stuff. But it's hard to get good batches, because people can almost give onions away. It's understandable, but it drags you into a vicious circle."

The current price level, 3.75 Euro a at the moment, doesn't make export interesting. "We, and our peers, are taking it easy. The drive to sell is very low at the moment, with all the risk of claims that come with it. I say to customers: Come and see, and I don't even really care whether you buy or not."