Onion sales within Europe are picking up somewhat

The season for the onions from the 2025 harvest is approaching its climax. Opinions differ on what we can still expect over roughly the last month. Part of the growers no longer believes in it and wants to get rid of the onions now. Others are more in the death or the gladioli camp and are waiting in the hope that there will still be a gap between the old and new harvest. Processors are somewhat cautious and are mainly interested in onions that fit in price and quality. Good, but not too expensive either. There is a wide variety in quality and price in the onions bought from growers. Those differences also have an impact on processors. For growers, it is hard to swallow that a rise like we saw last year in the onion market is still not happening for now. There are still quite a few onions left and both processors and growers are pushing through the best onions. Traders do not think the chance that we will run out of good onions by the end of the season is very high. They do add that these are of course onions,. In other words: it is not ruled out either. This week, it feels busier at various sorting companies, but that naturally also has to do with Ascension Day. Some are closed on Thursday but will still do some business on Friday, while others close their doors for two days. The total demand for onions this week does not seem fundamentally different from the past few weeks. A positive point for sorters and exporters is that there is somewhat more outlet for the coarse mediums. Especially from Eastern Europe there is more demand for 50-70 millimeter. They only want bigbags, so you do need to be able to deliver quality. Import Meanwhile, Egypt is also already rattling at the European door with onions from the new harvest. Delivered franco in Rotterdam, prices around and below €30 are being mentioned for this. Whether you should want those first Egyptian onions is another matter. One point of attention is the difficult outlet for undersized onions, waste and rejects. Industry has enough supply and is picky. Biogas plants do take onions, but they also attach a fair transport fee to that. It sounds nice to settle only 50 or 60 millimeter and above with the grower. If you have to add money to get rid of them then free onions are still too expensive, said an insider. For good onions, a small premium can also be made within limits. At the top of the market are the very good supers, for which up to €26 can be achieved. Coarse is around €19, €20. Bigbag quality 50-70 is up to €15, with a bit of effort maybe just €16. At the bottom of the market are the triplets and finer mediums with a floor of €11 or €12. Read here the explanation from DCA Market Intelligence on the new quotations.