The new herring season is coming up again. The new Dutch herring not only gives sales of fish a boost, Smit’s Uien also looks forward to the season each year.
The Dutch herring seasons implies extra busy months for Smits Uien.
Smit's Uien is one of the biggest suppliers of peeled onions, diced onions and onion rings for the restaurant business, fish shops and fresh produce. “We believe there are very few restaurants, cafeterias, caterers and fishmongers that don’t have our diced onions,” according to general managers Jan, Remon and Emiel Smit. Jan took over the company from his father, who sold vegetables at the wholesale markets at the time. In 1975, upon a customer’s request, they started peeling onions. Together with his brothers, Jan would sell fruit and vegetables for years to come, but after buying their first peeling machine, the onion activities kept expanding, and they started specializing in processing onions. “Through our neighbour at the time, Van den Heuvel, who supplied chips to the restaurant business, the ball started rolling.” Nearly all cafeterias he visited, bought the onions. The onions were then also offered diced and in rings, and the packaging possibilities were also expanded. “I think this has been our strength. Focusing on the products you make yourself, instead of on secondary matters,” he explains. In 2011, the increase led to the commissioning of yet another new building at the Forepark in The Hague.
New herring
Although the restaurant business is a far bigger purchaser of the diced onions than the fish business, the herring season does mean additional demand for Smit’s Uien. Jan says he looks forward to the new Dutch herring every year, which is traditionally served with diced onions. The company supplies the diced onions year-round in kilogramme and small packagings of 25 and 50 grammes to the fish wholesalers, but he says demand is noticeably higher in the herring season. “For the fish specialists, it’s a lot easier and faster to serve the onions with the new herring in a small packaging. This year, the season starts on June 10. Then we’re facing another couple of extra busy months.”
Export increase and fairs
The Dutch market is nearly completely supplied with peeled and cut onions. Abroad, where the convenience segment is still being developed, there are still plenty of chances though. In recent years, Smit’s Uien has also seen the export grow. “For instance, we have customers in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium and France, and recently we’ve also started supplying to customers in Austria. In the coming years, we will mostly focus on markets abroad by continuing to take part in many international trade fairs. We’ve been doing this since 2008, they’re rather hefty investments, also in terms of time, but we never actively approached companies, and we hope this won’t be necessary in the future either. Our growth is partly attributable to the presentation on a large number of restaurants, fresh produce and fish fairs.” Together with Cock Lassche and Raymond Mahieu, Jan is one of the regular faces of the fair crew.
More information:
Smits Uien
Jan Smit