The onion market is currently very much a grower's market, says Toine Stoop of Stoop AgroTrade. "If you want to buy onions in May, you have to pay 30 cents—otherwise, you won't get them. Right now, the retail bale price might be 30 cents, but prices overall range from 17 to 30 cents. So you could say that, in the onion trade, it feels like volunteer work at the moment."
"Farmers are noticing that this season. A large volume of onions has been shipped to Poland since November, and the growers who still have good-quality onions are being very patient," Toine continues. "Among processors, we're likely to see a split in the coming period. Some will continue and take a position, but others will drop out early and remain quiet. At the same time, there's a fair amount of buying from speculators, so we have to make sure that onions aren't circulating through the market multiple times before reaching their final destination."
© Toine Stoop
"There's still a decent amount of stock available," says Toine, who sources mainly from Groningen, Friesland, and North Holland and also works with a partner in Belgium and Germany. "In the Wieringermeer, things are progressing well, but from a European perspective, a lot is happening. German growers, for example, have scaled up to the point where they're nearly self-sufficient and are growing for processors in Zeeland. For them, the Ruhr area is simply closer than Groningen."
"My son Thijs is currently doing an internship in New Zealand, and the expansion of German onion acreage does have an impact on that. They're needing onions from New Zealand and Egypt less and less. That said, they're still onions—if prices go up here, importing could become attractive again."
In 1999, Toine started out as an independent transport entrepreneur and in 2006 expanded into commission trading of onions, first-year onion sets, and onion seed. As of this season, he has decided to focus fully on trading consumer and industrial onions, first-year sets, and onion seed, with a particular focus on exporting industrial onions to Poland.
For more information:
Toine Stoop
Stoop AgroTrade
Beemsterboerweg 13
1738 JX Waarland
Tel: +31 (0) 6 22698215
info@stoopagrotrade.nl