The new onion season is taking shape.

The onion market in Poland is already coming out of the transitional phase between trading last year's stocks and trading onions from this year's harvest. The new season is taking shape faster than in the 2023/2024 campaign, as last season saw a significantly delayed start to the new harvest campaign. However, despite this, in the last week, the price dynamics in the Polish onion market were similar to last year's and generally quite typical for this phase of the season.

There was a clear drop in prices for winter onions, caused by the usual seasonal factor of increased supply. The difference is that this drop occurred at a significantly lower price level than in the same period in 2023. To clarify - at a much lower level. Last year, between June 27 and July 3, the average price of bagged onions in large wholesale markets dropped from 0.83 EUR/kg to 0.58 EUR/kg, a decrease of about 31 percent.

This year, between June 24 and the present moment, we have seen a price drop of 35 percent, but from 0.43 EUR/kg to 0.28 EUR/kg. Currently, the prices for winter onions, dried and packed in bags, in large wholesale markets are mostly between 0.23-0.32 EUR/kg.

As seen, the early start to the season is showing visible effects on supply. Although it must be noted that this year's weather is far from optimal and has negatively impacted onion yields. However, not to the extent that one could say (as was the case last year) that there is a shortage of onions.

The question now is what will happen to onion prices next. With prices relatively low at the moment, one might expect the downward trend to slow down. However, besides supply, demand is crucial. Currently, the demand is not at its best, and further price declines are very likely.

The extent of this decline is hard to determine at the moment, but an average price around 0.23-0.24 EUR/kg in mid-July would not be surprising.