TheEgyptian production of red onions of this season is going to have a muchsmaller volume than last season. This is in part due to adverse weatherconditions leading to smaller sizes and some diseases. However, according to Wael Soliman of the Egyptian grower and export companyOriental Trade, this is mainly due to the bad results most growers had lastyear. “Last season, a lot of growers lost money on red onions. So, say that agrower used to have 100 hectares, he’d now opt for an acreage of just 50hectares. This has led to a much smaller production.”
Theselimited volumes are a mixed blessing for exporting companies like Oriental Trade. “A limited quantity leads to a high price. This is nice for growers,but not so much for exporters, as they need to compete on the world market,”explains Soliman.
In theseason of 2015, a ton of red onions would go for $170. This season, that samecontainer costs around $250.
In order todeal with these low volumes, Oriental Trade is trying to collect onions fromall over Egyptfor storage. “We try to store red onions for as much as two months. The onionsof higher quality are sent to Europe. Demandfrom Europe isn’t particularly high, but it’sstill worthwhile. Every week we’re sending about 7 containers of red onions to Europe.”
Within Europe, the main destinations for export are the Netherlands,the UK,The Czech Republic and Germany.“The Netherlandsalways have a large demand for red onions, but mainly because the Netherlands actas a gateway for export to regions like Scandinavia.We’ll probably ship our last container for the European market in July. Thenwe’ll focus on the Eastern markets, like India. We’re also trying to gainaccess to new markets like Canadaand South America, but we still need the logisticalmeans for export to these destinations.”
Withregards to the future, Soliman thinks that the prices of red onions are goingto be low. “We have a lot of production and a lot acreage. But we also have alow domestic demand. This will drive the prices down.”
However,this also means that competition isn’t going to be an issue for Eygptian redonions. “There is some competition from Italy, as the Italian seasoncoincides somewhat with our own. But in general, our onions are still cheaperthan most other producing countries like India or Australia,” ended Soliman.
For more information:
Wael Soliman
Oriental Trade
Tel 00202-632-8144
Email: info@orientalfruits.com ; wsoliman@orientalfruits.com
www.orientalfruits.com