For the second season in a row, onions remain one of the most discussed commodity items in the world's fruit and vegetable business. Therefore, EastFruit team decided to analyze onion imports for the recent five calendar years (from 2018 to 2022 inclusive) to compile its own ranking of the largest importers.
Separately, we will show which countries are increasing onion imports at the fastest pace, so that exporters can understand which potential buyers should pay attention to first.
However, first, here is what the world map looks like, which shows the largest importers by the end of 2022. Let us remember that this is the year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which had a huge negative impact on the onion trade in the region.
The following graph clearly shows that many onion imports are far from being concentrated. Therefore, the share of the five largest countries-importers in the volume of imports barely reaches 27%. Moreover, almost all of the five largest importers are located in different parts of the world. Only the UAE and Saudi Arabia represent the Middle East region, with a slightly larger share of imports than the United States alone.
There are also significant differences in the types of onions different countries grow and consume. In Europe and Central Asia, the main volumes of both consumption and trade are yellow, or as it is also called "brown" or "golden" onions, and in many countries with warmer climates, preference is given to purple/red or white onions.
For more information: east-fruit.com