William Nannes, Beemsterboer:
"Forget large onion volumes from Africa for this harvest"
"January/February 2013 Senegal imported a record quantity of onions, 40,000 tonnes. With a consumption of about 4,000 tonnes per week these volumes were far too large. Depending on the weather conditions the local harvest starts about the middle of February. In 2013 there were still so many import onions on the market that were very much in the way and as a result prices decreased to below cost price and in turn importers and exporters lost millions" Nannes says, looking back.
"The government will definitely not allow this to happen a second time and will probably only agree to a limited volume, which will not be related to the volumes of last year. There are sufficient onions on the market now and prices decreased during the last month rather than increased" William continues. "The second large importer is Ivory Coast, but because of the large volumes imported during December the market is bad at the moment and I do not expect any demand from there. For the present harvest we may just as well forget about large volumes from Africa and we will have to be satisfied with other destinations."