"I expect Southern Europe to enter the market earlier"

"Our export destinations are currently not very busy," says Rene Tiggelman of the Dutch company Javala. "For example, customers in Africa are reserved because of the high prices. They order, but less. For now, clients in the Far East are mainly buying their onions from China. We've shipped some containers, but China delivers onions, costs included, at half the price."

"In Europe, there's demand from France, but I'm quite pessimistic about short-term sales. I expect Southern Europe will enter the market earlier. Spain, for instance, has quality problems, so we should manage to send more onions there towards the turn of the year. In the long run, things should work out, but that's still a ways away, and I live mainly day-by-day," Rene explains.

"The roughly €0.50 bale price is also still too steep for buyers, and colleagues tell me they're still owed money from last year, which makes you more cautious. Red onions are completely unaffordable. For a while, when red seed onions couldn't be harvested, there was zero availability."

Several years ago, Javala discontinued its small-scale activities to continue fully as a trading firm. "That was the right choice; it suits us. Our trading activities were already the largest, by far, and this focus makes it more manageable," says Tiggelman. Javala focuses primarily on potatoes and onions. "We carry products like shallots, but they're not big. We're fairly traditional in our approach."

"I hear different reports regarding the onions' quality. Packers tell me it varies enormously per region, farmer, and plot," Rene says, adding that he had expected an advance in optical sorting developments sooner. "It's a huge investment, and if things shut down, everything comes to an immediate halt. Honestly, I thought there'd be a big breakthrough ten years ago," he concludes.