Export demand for onions boosts market sentiment

Senegal has officially opened the border for Dutch onions and the demand is generally quite broad and good. This is improving the mood in the onion sector. These are the weeks we need, say sorters and exporters. It is stealing between the showers, but quite a lot of onions have been lifted and also brought in over the past few days. Some should have stayed on the windrow a bit longer, but with the expected showers in mind growers made the choice to bring them in anyway. The supply of really dry onions that can be processed immediately is not extensive. We do not have the warm dry weather of a few weeks ago and the days are getting shorter now that we are in September. If you get some sun and wind, the onions do dry in the windrow. Several sorters do indicate that they have been able to replenish their working stock quite a bit. Senegal officially open Demand for onions from abroad is good in the meantime. Senegal is officially open but there is still a stock of onions that can finally enter the country now. Various stories are circulating about the quality of those onions. It is mainly the extremes of onions that are already on pallets on the quay that draw attention. We need to worry much less about what is still in the reefers, according to an exporter. Broad demand Africa is the main destination for most exporters, but quite a lot is also going to Asia. In addition, Brazil is also on the market. However, those buyers mainly want onions in the 60-80 millimeter size. There are such coarse onions, but as a sorter it is important not to lose sight of the sales of the medium sizes either. Of course it differs a bit per lot and per sorter but grosso modo it seems that 30% to 35% is 60-up and the trend seems to be that the onions loaded later are coarser. Although the onions are not very coarse, several sorters are pleasantly surprised by how many three-onions come out of a lot. If you put 50-70 seven on the sorter, in many cases you have 80% or 90% of the lot, says a sorter. Jumbo onions are scarce and several sorters are offering seed onions. The DCA Packed Onions Benchmark Price is taking another step up this week. The vast majority of trade is in medium sizes and several sorters are trying to run 45-65 to still get some coarse onions out of a lot. Jumbo onions are at €39,50 this week, with the remark that seed onions are also included there.