Onion export figures show no decline in sales yet

With still 31 weeks to go, the Dutch onion export has already exported almost 700,000 tons of onions. This season far surpasses the previous years. Meanwhile, it is not over yet. The big question is how long and at what pace the export will continue. It is not surprising that the export to West Africa has stagnated in the last two weeks. In the first three weeks of November, the main buyer of Dutch onions - Senegal - has really been flooded with the Dutch product. More than 44,000 tons have been shipped to Senegal in three weeks, as can be inferred from preliminary data from the KCB and the GroentenFruit Huis. The second week in November was the super peak week, where almost 18,000 tons were placed on the boat to the West African country. Even for a country where weekly maybe 7,000 to 8,000 tons of onions are consumed, that is apparently a bit too much. Last week, there was a thought among exporters that the figure for week 46 might have been a bit inflated. It just depends on which week a certain shipment is counted. But the announcement of the export figure of about 14,250 tons in week 47 once again clearly emphasizes that a lot of onions really went to Senegal last month. The total export to Senegal amounts to nearly 170,000 tons by the end of week 47 this season. And when you realize that the export record of Dutch onions to this country is just above 181,000 tons (season 2024-2025), you know that things are moving very quickly this year. Normally, just before Christmas, a very large amount goes to this country, and there are still some boats scheduled for January. Whether the latter will also take place this season is the question. One person is convinced that Senegal will strictly adhere to the date of January 1 when the borders close for imported onions. Another assumes that there will be some boats heading that way in the first month of 2026. The latter is mainly based on the fact that Ramadan starts early this year - in mid-February - and that local production will then still be insufficient to meet the high demand for onions. The sales to Ivory Coast have already shown a significant decline in November. Nevertheless, the export to this country remains very large at about 4,500 tons per week. This is less than the over 8,000 tons that were sold weekly to this West African country in October. According to exporters, sales to Mali have also decreased significantly in the last two weeks. However, this is not yet reflected in the figures that have been released so far. In week 47, 3,600 tons were exported to this country, which is the largest weekly volume since the last week of August, when nearly 4,000 tons were shipped to this country. Mauritania was also very present in the market in the third week of November, with a decrease of more than 3,000 tons. Thus, the aforementioned African countries have made a significant impact on sales in that week. The total sales in week 47 were more than 42,600 tons, bringing the number of weeks above 40,000 tons this season to ten. Almost half of the number of weeks in this season.