- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Asparagus
- Artichokes
- Arugula (rocket)
- Aubergines
- Beans
- Beetroot
- Broad bean
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
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- Cauliflower
- Carrot
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- Chicory
- Chinese cabbage
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- Cucurbit
- Courgette (zucchini)
- Fennel
- Garlic
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- Green Beans
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- Lettuce and endives
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- Radish
- Shallot
- Spinach
- Sweet corn
- Sweet pepper
- Sweet potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Turnip
- Witloof chicory
- Yellow squash
- Mushrooms
Are onion prices expected to drop?
On Monday, we wrote about significant price drops in the Dutch onion market on the www.boerenbusiness.com website. Prices of bagged onions there fell by 14-24 percent last week, starting this week at 1.14-1.29 PLN/kg, which is approximately 0.27-0.30 EUR/kg. Prices for onions from Dutch farmers with stems were at 0.80 PLN/kg (goods intended for bags), or about 0.19 EUR/kg. Should we expect such significant price drops in the fresh onion market in Poland as well?
Prices of this vegetable have remained relatively stable in our wholesale market since mid-July. Currently, selling prices in large wholesale markets are mostly 0.90-1.10 PLN/kg, which is approximately 0.21-0.26 EUR/kg. There was even a temporary and slight increase in the prices of bagged onions offered in the large wholesale market. What awaits us in the onion market in the coming days and weeks? As seen in the chart, selling prices of onions in large wholesale markets are already relatively low. Compared to the previous five seasons, only two campaigns had worse prices at the beginning of August.
Looking at a longer time perspective, it can be observed that there have been seasons with much lower prices (in the last fifteen years, the cheapest in early August was in 2014 with an average price of just 0.53 PLN/kg, which is about 0.12 EUR/kg), but our monitoring data from fresh-market.pl's editorial office shows that even fifteen years ago, prices could be higher than now (the average price from August 5 in 2009 and 2010 was 1.10 PLN/kg, or approximately 0.26 EUR/kg).
Onions are already cheap in Poland, that is undisputed. However, on the other hand, we have estimates of yields published by GUS. Although these are preliminary data, given the weather conditions and field conditions in July, the next forecast could be even worse. GUS experts estimate that onion harvests in the current year will amount to 695 thousand tons, which is a 9.6 percent increase. This would result in, as seen in our second chart, the highest volume of harvested onions since 2009.
This is not good news for producers in the context of what we have written about already low prices and price drops for onions in the Netherlands. Moreover, the situation is similar beyond our eastern border. In Ukraine, onions are cheaper by nearly 19 percent year on year (from 13 hryvnias/kg to 16 hryvnias/kg), in Moldova, they are cheaper by as much as 43 percent (from 4 lei/kg to 7 lei/kg), and the situation is no different in Uzbekistan, where the year-on-year decline is 40 percent (from 1200 sum/kg to 2000 sum/kg). These details are provided by the east-fruit.com portal.
Therefore, it seems that we should also expect further price pressure on onions in Poland. Of course, it is a fact that later plantings and onions from seeds have suffered greatly due to unfavorable weather conditions. Consequently, yields will be worse than they could have been. Nevertheless, the outlook for onions, not only in Poland, is currently not favorable.