DCA Packed Onions Benchmark Price still searching for a floor

Of all the arable crops, onions may have been hit hardest by this week's weather. As a result, growers are taking a firmer stance in the market. However, packed onion prices are struggling to keep pace. Demand from Africa could change that.Demand for Dutch onions from overseas is good. The low prices at the end of the old season helped retain customers, according to various exporters. The first onions from the new Dutch harvest also allowed packed onion prices to move higher. Now that most sorters have returned from the summer break and fully switched to the new crop, competition for export orders has increased again.Growers have little interest in the competition among onion sorters. On the growers' side, the plant onions are ripening quickly. Especially in the early plant onions, several growers are keen to harvest. That is weighing on the market.Senegal to open early?A positive development for the onion sector is that there are indications Senegal could open its market relatively early. An opening on 1 August is probably unlikely, but some market participants expect imports to resume in the first half of August. Price differences for sorted onions remain fairly wide, largely depending on the stock each sorter still has available. The winter plant onions produced relatively many large and jumbo onions, and processors who still have these in stock are offering them at competitive prices. The later plant onions are, on average, somewhat smaller. Although relatively few onions have been lifted and loaded this week, some sorters are still trying to move the medium sizes, partly to maintain the price balance with the 60-80 mm grade. As a result, the price spread between the different sizes has widened somewhat.