Does the customer want thicker onions?

In this year, we can observe a strange trend in onion trading in the retail market. There are retail chains that clearly prefer to purchase larger-sized onions. So, on the shelves of supermarkets, we see products labeled as 50+, which seems quite odd because one would intuitively think that consumers would be more interested in smaller onions. Previously, smaller onions, such as those with a caliber of 40/60, dominated this sales channel. Often, the products even included onions up to 60 mm, including very small pieces. Now there is a noticeable change in this regard. It can be seen on the supermarket shelves, and suppliers are informing about it. However, this year there is no surplus of large onions in the domestic harvest. So what should farmers do with the smaller ones? There were marketing campaigns for selling misshapen beetroots and carrots; maybe a similar campaign is needed for smaller onions? Returning to the wholesale onion market, it seems justified to theorize that changes in prices may soon start here. Currently, the selling prices of Polish bagged onions remain fairly stable. Since the end of September, prices have been mostly between 1.00-1.40 PLN/kg. But firstly, spring-sown onions are disappearing from the market. The increasingly rare sales offers are pricing them at 0.80-0.90 PLN/kg, depending on the caliber. There are also changes in raw material prices for peeling. There are almost no offers now at prices around 0.30 PLN/kg. Buyers are now offering 0.40-0.45 PLN/kg. This is because the early domestic onions are ending, and there are fewer offers of such raw material at low prices, even in the Netherlands. Harvests in Europe are finishing, and trading conditions are changing. Therefore, we can expect some strengthening of onion prices in Poland, although resistance against this trend may be greater from buyers than last year. Everyone knows that this year's harvests are larger. But only the supply side remembers that this is largely due to the significant increase in early onion harvests. In the case of late onions, the difference compared to last year seems to be smaller. It should be noted that even the Central Statistical Office (GUS) has significantly reduced its onion harvest forecasts for 2024 - from 695,000 tons to 667,000 tons. Nevertheless, this is still more than in the years 2018-2023. Currently, there is a 6-8 groszy per kilogram gap compared to the five-year average, so there is "room" for a slight strengthening of prices even without a fundamental change in relation to previous years. Of course, import volumes and prices will be important. Currently, Dutch bagged onions are priced at 1.60-2.00 PLN/kg in the Polish wholesale market (Bronisze). On the other hand, onions from Uzbekistan are priced at 1.40-1.50 PLN/kg, but they do not flow continuously to Poland. According to information from the east-fruit.com portal, onion prices in Uzbekistan remain stable and low, lower than in 2023 and 2022. Currently, they are at 0.10 USD/kg (compared to 0.18 USD/kg in 2023 and 2022). In Moldova, onion prices are at 0.25 USD/kg, with a small difference compared to last year (0.27 USD/kg). In Ukraine, the average price has already exceeded last year's level, reaching 0.29 USD/kg compared to 0.27 USD/kg the previous year.