Last season's onion market was empty, and Senegal entered the market very early. This year, Dutch onion sets, thus, started with high prices. "I think demand is currently very limited to Senegal and Ivory Coast. There's meager supply, which keeps the market reasonably balanced, but the main crop will come in soon, and if demand doesn't increase, prices will start dropping slightly," says William Nannes of J.P. Beemsterboer Food Traders.
Presently, onion set prices of €0.60 to €0.61/kg for the graded product are still high. "If that drops, other destinations will soon appear. It's still empty talk when it comes to those places and last season's high prices have opened doors for other countries. For example, despite a previously announced export halt, Morocco's sending 30,000 tons of onions to Senegal, and Chinese onions have also been spotted there. Demand from Senegal will, thus, certainly fall for a while in the coming period."
"The past few days' rains halted onion set harvesting. That's unfortunate because the first seed onions are already coming out next week. Those grew a lot over the past few weeks. In some cultivation areas, 70+ tons/hectare yields are expected. Those growers won't all store their onions, which will naturally create some price pressure. We're expecting good things from our pink onion variety Crimsun this season. These look excellent again, and interest in this variety is only increasing," concludes William, with confidence about the season.
William Nannes and Jan Beemsterboer
For more information:
William Nannes
J.P. Beemsterboer Food Traders
Tel: +31 (0) 226 396 408
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.beemsterboer.nl