Higher production for Egyptian spring onions

There’s higher availability for spring onions from Egypt this season, while demand is not as strong due to the economic situation abroad, and the exported large quantities of spring onion from multiple exporters, FreshPlaza notes.

Amro Yassin of Egyptian produce exporter Stars of Export explains: “The production for Egyptian spring onions is higher than it was in the previous years. However, we’re seeing that demand at this point in time is actually a little bit low due to the economic situation abroad, and we exported large quantities of spring onions from multiple exporters at the beginning of the season. We do expect this demand to increase during the month of December, though.”

The focus for Stars of Export will be expansion in the markets they’re already present in, Yassin states. “There’s not really any new markets for us to enter, as we’re already supplying all of the spring onion markets that are feasible for us. So instead of increasing markets, we’re looking to increase the quantities of spring onions we supply to the markets we’ve already entered.”

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According to Yassin, there are still some difficulties with logistics: “For us, the biggest of challenges for this season have to do with logistics problems, due to delays of vessels and the weather conditions. To solve this issue, we try to ship to different destinations, but this increase in transport time can lead to new challenges with the shelf life of the products.”

Yassin feels that current prices are too low, but also hopes that the coming weeks will be much better overall for the season. “Current market prices are unsatisfactory, as just like last year, we’re seeing flooding of the market. With an abundance of spring onions being available, the prices naturally go down. That being said, we expect some improvement in the coming weeks for the spring onions season, as Egypt enters its harsh winter season,” he concludes.