At Franje Onions, the onion packaging season has come to an end. "Demand has completely stalled," observes Jan Franje. "All in all, it's been another extraordinary season. Expectations were sky-high, and everyone thought they had the monopoly on truth, but as it turns out, nobody really knows. In fact, if you think you've got it figured out, you're likely wrong. And that's precisely the charm of the entire onion trade."
"We're now seeing significant quality issues arising with the onions. We've just received some better batches, but now demand has suddenly dropped. It seems inevitable that there will be onions left over this year. There are still many onions that need to go, and the options for selling them are limited. Countries like Spain and Italy already have their new harvest, and Eastern Europe is being supplied with plenty of Egyptian onions," Jan explains.
"Moreover, the growing season has been exceptionally challenging. We all thought we were going to have an abundance of new onions, but it seems like the entire country - and the neighboring countries too - have been severely affected by the rain. There have been problems since November. Initially, the northern part of the country was relatively dry, but this week, it too received a massive amount of rain. However, I must say that the weather has been extraordinarily conducive to growth, everything that's planted is growing well. But anything that's underwater is problematic."
Franje invested this season in a couple of Quality Graders and a Divider from Flikweert Vision. "So far, I'm very satisfied. Thanks to these machines, we can achieve an extremely precise quality sorting that meets our customers' demands. But we want to keep improving. That's why we're making further adjustments next week, including to the wind shifting above the Divider, so the product becomes even more visible."
For more information:
Jan Franje
Franje Onions
Gawege 10
4414 NB Waarde
+31 (0)113 501658
[email protected]
www.franjeonions.nl