By the 15th of September practically all the onions, both red and white, from the fields of Thiva, will have already been harvested. This signals the end of the current season for the largest Greek onion area. Mr. Charalampos Anifantis, sales director of the Anifantis Farm, a company based at Thiva that is specialized in the marketing of onions, says that "in the first week of September about 80% of the whole product has been already harvested" and that "the farmers receive prices of 0,25 euros/kg. These prices will not change until the end of the harvest."
As for the sales pace, the exporter declares dissatisfaction with the market developments of the last weeks, because there is insufficient demand. The most important markets for Greek onions are Bulgaria and Romania, but as Mr. Anifantis mentions: "These countries and generally all of Eastern Europe now have their own production." There is as well competition from the Spanish and the Dutch onions in these countries, "but at least the Greek market relies on its own product." says Mr. Anifantis. In general, the season was quite good, since the medium prices for the Greek packers was 0,35 euros/kg.
Apart from onions, Anifantis Farm also packs and exports potatoes. The plantation process is progressing smoothly in Thiva and it is expected that on November 1st, the first potatoes from Thiva will be ready for export. However, this year's potato acreage in Thiva will be considerably lower than last year's level, since the potato has proven to be a low-profitability product. The reason for this is the strong competition coming from Egypt, whose potatoes flood the Balkan countries. "Ξ€here will be fewer potatoes from Thiva this year. We have a very narrow sales window, till January. Then Egypt comes in, and we can export almost nothing", concludes Mr. Anifantis.
Even Greece represents a very good market for the Egyptian potato exporters, since according to official data, potato imports from Egypt are almost three times the entire Greek export volume.
For more information
Charalampos Anifantis
Anifantis Farm
Tel: +30 22620 73059
[email protected]
https://anifantisfarm.gr/