After 20 years in the Netherlands, the industry's onion world holds few surprises for Global Onions' Mateusz Maćkowski. Yet, he keeps moving forward. Mateusz, for example, wants to install handy optical onion graders, especially for industrial onions, at his 100 largest customers in Poland over the next five years. Those must still be built.
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Global Onions' motto is: There is no such thing as a bad onion. "We have clients for every segment, from peeling plants to bakeries to drying plants and meat processors. For instance, many buyers didn't want onions with the green part of the bulb still attached. Now, we supply them to salad makers who put the diced onions' green bits to good use. They add color to salad mixes," says Mateusz.
The company, which sells onions of all shapes and sizes, has around 100 contract growers in countries like France, Poland, Germany, and Hungary. Their acreage totals roughly 3,500 hectares, and this year, Global Onions is conducting a trial with Finnish onions for the first time.
These optical graders are gaining popularity at Dutch onion processors. "Initially, it was thought they would significantly impact the industrial onion market. People working the conveyor belts discard more good onions than optical sorters. But it's hardly affected our workload. It's more like two quality streams have emerged. That's not a problem because we can find buyers for both. We often sold field onion bulbs at lower prices than the sorters. The optical graders' arrival changed that," says Maćkowski.
Machine manufacturer could get 100 clients
That has led Mateusz to a new plan: provide his 100 biggest customers with optical onion sorting machines in the next while. "I want an optical grader specifically for industrial onions. That means lower capacity, uncomplicated, and not too expensive. I can steer 100 clients towards the manufacturer who can help me."
By providing machines to customers, Mateusz can guarantee sales for himself. 'I've done so before. I had 140 peeling machines installed at clients' locations. What's more, I'm sure the capacity of those optical sorting machines will only increase. It used to be 10 tons, now they can easily raise the volume to 50 tons," he concludes.
For more information:
Mateusz Mackowski
Global Onions
mateusz@globalonions.com
www.globalonions.com