The rain considerably affected this year's European onion cultivation. That's according to Kees van den Bosch of the Freeland trading firm in the Netherlands. "Entire regions were flooded. There used to be pre and post-rain onions. Those from before were nice and brown. Now, there are only those from after the rain."
"I'm curious to see how that develops in terms of shelf life. The information is trickling in. But we'll have to see what the harvest is like in other European countries. We've also sent fewer onion sets to Sweden. It's hard to say whether that's pandemic-related. Or due to improved cultivation and storage conditions. Nevertheless, this year, exports to Scandinavia were dramatically lower."
Onions are a big-ticket item at Freeland throughout the year. In addition to Dutch onions, this full soil vegetable specialist sources onions from India and Egypt. "We distinguish ourselves by supplying year-round yellow, white, and red onions. You can make a reasonable name for yourself with white onions. It's a separate product, mainly for the hospitality and foodservice industries," Kees continues.
"We get them from India from February to June. After that, they're available from Southern Europe. They tried growing these in the Netherlands. That, however, never really took off. Last year was a strange year for imported red onions. Dutch red onions remained available all year. And there was hardly any demand for the imported ones. That was due to a combination of COVID-19 and speculation."
"This year's onion season began with quite low prices, around €0.14. And not much has happened on the market since. Freeland limits its sales to the European market. "We export a few onions outside the EU. But, I don't aspire to large-scale Africa trade. I experienced the Russia debacle. I don't want to start doing foreign trade at my age. That's for the next generation if that's what they want," Kees concludes.
Kees van den Bosch
Freeland B.V.
Nijbracht 126
7821 CE Emmen
+31 (0)591 670570
kees@freeland.nl
www.freeland.nl