The onion market has started in a very different way from past years. "It feels old-fashioned again. At least you can send invoices again that don't feel so astronomically high," says Rinus Wisse of Wiscomex.
"For now, everyone is also in pretty good spirits. The price is not an obstacle and the onions can go anywhere. In addition, in many destinations, such as Malaysia, Central America, but also African destinations, too few seed onions have arrived yet to spoil the mood. Only in Côte d'Ivoire do we have the after-effects of the market being overfilled in recent weeks, but that will resolve itself in the coming weeks."
"However, onion sets are still in the way here and there, but I expect onion set exports to be done by next week. The bale prices of the seed onions from fine to coarse are at a level of 18-20 cents, the onion sets are a few cents below that with a range between 14-16 cents. Qualitatively, I don't think the onions are disappointing. There are plenty of onions with a story to tell, but that is a yield problem rather than a quality problem."
"All in all, the mood is fairly positive. This week for the first time I was buying onions again on Wednesdays for the following Wednesday, and these are good signs. At the same time, I hope the price doesn't shoot up again immediately, because in my view you suffer from that longer than it provides convenience. There are plenty of onions and, on balance, the 10-12% increase in acreage this year remains huge, while exports are still 7,000 to 8,000 tons behind last year. A stable market would therefore, in my view, do most justice to the expected yields. With an expected total yield of 1.7 million tonnes of yellow and red onions and onion sets, we still have a lot to export."
According to Rinus, the high prices of recent years do not threaten the current export position. "In that sense, the Dutch onion still has a nice track record and then if the prices are reasonably favourable, we will be in in no time. Customers who have bought Chinese onions recently, for example, have also suffered the after-effects. Basically, with current prices, we have a priority position all over the world."
For more information:
Rinus Wisse
Wiscomex
Schoorkenszandweg 23b
4431 NC 's-Gravenpolder
[email protected]
www.wiscomex.com