A Feb. 20 story published at https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/onion-exporter-says-nz-season-could-end-in-tears/235VUOS2YLQRDNO742RAM6WWNQ/ quotes Mike Blake with NZ Onion Company saying 2022 might be that region’s worst season in three decades.
Noting that growers “have also had a difficult year” with hot, dry conditions early in the growing season that resulted in small, thin-skinned onions, the Country story went on to say the crops were later stuck by mildew after heavy rains.
The first of this season’s onions left New Zealand earlier this month, with Indonesia one market for the smaller sizes.
The NZ Onion Company exports 15,000 tons of onions annually, but Blake said that number is expected to be reduced by 30 percent this season, with Europe taking only half the volume it normally imports from New Zealand.
The story said that about a third of New Zealand’s 180,000 to 200,000-ton export crop is normally exported to Europe.
Blake was quoted as saying, “The cost of freight has increased by as much as 100 percent to different parts of the world,” and added the “only way to offset that was to increase the price or to return less to the growers.”
Blake went on to say, “And as a result of New Zealand asking for a higher price, the packhouses and supermarkets in Europe have decided to go as long as they possibly can with their own production and reduce the import season. Instead of having a four or six-week program (selling New Zealand onions), they are only going to have a two or three-week window.”
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Limited volumes of the 2022 crop are headed to Japan, but Blake said that the market is “not really proving to be the savior that we were anticipating.”
