The continuing spell of hot weather is providing the latest test to those involved in the onion industry and if the incessant heat continues there could be more testing times ahead. As the situation stands there are a whole host of opinions on how the season will develop, though suppliers and growers are generally confident.
Gerard Hoekman, managing director at Mulder Onions BV in the Netherlands, believes that it is too early to predict how the season will develop, but he is not expecting miracles. He says: “With the weather being extremely dry and hot we are not expecting the yield to be high. The problem I can see arising is that there will not be enough larger size onions. There will be plenty of small and medium-sized onions but we will be running short on the 70mm crop.”
Jason Burgess, managing director at Rustler Produce, also believes that yields will be lower this year. He says: “We grow onions in Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in the UK. Larger onions are being imported from our supplier in the Albacete area of Spain and our joint venture partner Las Lomas, which is based near Vejer de la Frontera in Spain. We are also working with suppliers from Italy and the Netherlands. Crop quality is looking excellent this year but the yield per acre will be lower than last season. Following drought conditions overall size is slightly down but storability should be very good.”
Colin Galbraith, chairman of Fresh World, agrees with Burgess and thinks that the UK crop will be marginally down this year. “I believe the crop will be down this year by around seven per cent.”
The weather does have some industry players positively glowing. David O'Connor, managing director at Allium and Brassica Centre, is delighted with events so far. “So far we have had wonderful weather harvesting our spring sets and the yields have been particularly good which is very pleasing. We've had a good warm season all the way through and have had rain at appropriate intervals, also the land can be irrigated far more successfully nowadays,” he says.
The weather, as ever, is playing a major role this year. Hoekman says: “The heat is causing an issue with sizing but looking to the rest of the season the only potential problem I can see is the further role of the weather until the crop is stored.”
Burgess agrees that the weather for the remainder of the growing season is a concern. He says: “The hot weather is likely to lead to a reduction in the average size of bulbs. However, until the crops are in storage the weather will have a part to play in the final outcome. Rain at the wrong time could be problematic. The weather in Italy has been very dry and this has caused a sharp increase in the price of red onions.”
Galbraith says that although growing conditions have been good up to now if the heat continues problems could be on the horizon. “The major crop factor is heat now in Western Europe and drought conditions in Eastern Europe, followed by very heavy rain in the same region when it was too late coming,” he adds.
Fresh World contracts onions in the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, South Africa, Chile and New Zealand and Galbraith sees potential problems. He says: “The early sets have already gained their size before the weather played its part but as that crop was well down in acreage it has little bearing on the overall situation. The Dutch crop could be affected but as they had increased their acreage to probably a record breaking one, the main damage from the heat will be in the south where irrigation is difficult.
“Both the German and Austrian crops are likely to be smaller and the Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria are likely to be short. Elsewhere, Spain is supposed to be down by 17 per cent, but that is mostly with growers selling and growing for the wholesale sector. Growers with supermarket business are at the same or slightly increased acreage.”
Hoekman feels that growing conditions were looking good until early June. He says: “The crops were looking very good and then came the hot weather, which has had a big impact. Yield will be down on last year but as we have increased our acreage this should not result in any major problems.”
O'Connor is pleased with the harvesting so far of the spring set. “We are currently 60-70 per cent of the way through harvesting and it is looking extremely successful so far. We are getting around 25 tonnes per acre,” he continues. “Our acreage has dropped from around 2,855 to 2,394 but with pleasing yield results should be similar to last year.” O'Connor is mildly concerned about the drilled crop harvest. “We are due to begin harvesting in around a week to three weeks time. The heat in the coming period will play a role, we are hoping for around 18-20t per acre. Growing conditions have been much better and mildew has been under control,” he says.
Rustler is also expecting yields of around 18-20t, which is smaller than last year, but Burgess is unconcerned. He says: “I believe at this stage quality will be better than last year, especially with regards to sets where the 2002 crop suffered major disease problems with internal roots, which have not been seen this year as yet.”
There are concerns with oversupply but Galbraith believes this is only likely on small onions. He says: “If Russia and the other East European countries buy from the Netherlands it will mean a shorter year and higher prices. The crucial factor with onions being a worldwide commodity means the UK has little control over prices over the season.”
Burgess believes the danger of oversupply is mainly in the processing sector. “The Netherlands has increased its acreage this coming year and if budgeted yield is reached it could have over one million tonnes to export. However, drought conditions in the rest of Europe, linked with less irrigation capacity than UK may well help prevent a serious oversupply threat,” he says.
Hoekman has noticed the rise of the ready meal as a growing area for the industry and Beacon Foods is busy casting its net wider in this industry. Robert Sweet, new product development manager, is developing a portfolio of onion products. “Demand for our wide range of onion products continues to grow apace. Onions are such versatile vegetables that we provide them raw, chargrilled, roasted, caramelised, smoked and marinated in various cuts,” he says. The company which processes 20t a week of English, red and white onions and shallots has developed a new product of red and white onions marinated in brine, which removes the bitterness before being added to chutney.
There are also developments in the field of shallots. The country's shallot growers have joined forces and formed a new association to be known as ukshallot.com to help grow the market. Paul Cripsey of FB Parrish & Son is one of five major UK growers of shallots. “We are implementing media relations and e-marketing initiatives to promote awareness and understanding of the key feature of shallots among consumers.”
Shallots in the UK are a largely untapped market, while in France the per capita consumption is 580 grammes in the UK this figure stands at around 50g. In the coming year, ukshallot.com will be implementing a carefully targeted media relations programme aimed at the national and regional press.
Looking to the future there are other concerns within the onion industry and Hoekman has concerns. He says: “The main problem in the Netherlands is exporting is growing faster than consumption, we export around 90 per cent of the onions we produce. With Russia as one of our biggest customers if they begin to look elsewhere for onions such as the Far East or if they invest in agriculture themselves this may put added pressure on that particular market. This would make things very hard for us.”
O'Connor is extremely upbeat about the future and is pleased with the growing interest in red onions. “There is pleasing demand from retailers and we have doubled the amount of hectares we have for red onions to 1,000ha in the last three years,” he says.
Stuart Nelson marketing director for Rustler Produce is also brimming with confidence. He says: “The market is going in the right direction and there is an opportunity to increase pricing levels. Consumer research we have undertaken demonstrates that onions are great value and consumers are willing to pay more. New varieties and packaging are arriving creating excitement at the point of purchase. The arrival of the tear-free onion ëSupasweet' is creating a lot of interest and we're optimistic for the future of the industry and the role we can play within it.”
No comments yet