In anticipation of the release of the updated part of the study on the forecast of production and prices for potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, and apples in Ukraine in the 2020/21 season, experts of the APK-Inform: Vegetables and Fruits project conducted a final survey of producers, received corrected data from representatives of seed companies, analyzed official data on international trade in seed, and most importantly, conducted a series of consultations with market experts and professional growers.
One of the key crops of this season is undoubtedly onions, the prices for which in the second half of the season reached record levels for two years in a row, in particular, up to UAH 17 / kg in the 2019/20 season, and more than UAH 25 / kg in the 2018/2019 season.
High prices attracted new players to this business and added excitement to experienced manufacturers. As the project analysts predicted back in the spring of 2020, onion areas continue to grow for the next year in a row and with increasing intensity.
The project specialists, relying on an increase in acreage, an increase in imports of planting onions, and reports of sales growth from representatives of seed companies, for logical reasons, predicted an increase in the gross harvest of onions in Ukraine in 2020 compared to last year, even taking into account an insignificant decrease in yield.
Producers, trying to control the situation, began to report more and more problems with onions, such as early withering of the tops, undershooting of the planned mass, the development of diseases, etc.
Agroanaliz LLC reported that the most real threat to onions is a lack of harvest in quantitative terms since plants’ development due to the tops’ wilting is delayed. However, experts do not yet see any problems with the quality of products for further storage.
Serhii Klimashevych, a co-founder of Kovalevka LLC, where onions are grown on an area of 80 hectares, helped get a deeper understanding of the situation with the state of the onion market in Ukraine at the time of the main harvest.
According to the manufacturer, in their region, it is possible to find fields with high-quality onions and areas with an opposite situation, where there is no professional approach to production.
“If we evaluate the current season of onion production in Ukraine, then using the example of such companies as ours and many other serious onion producers with many years of experience, we can say with confidence that in 2020 there will be absolutely enough onion of appropriate quality to fill the storage capacity “, states Serhii.
“However, it is difficult to say whether the required production amount will last until May 2021 not to replace the shortage with imported onions. Only a sharp deterioration in the quality of Ukrainian onion in storage in the second half of the 2020/21 season can support higher onion prices in April-May 2021. At the moment, it is challenging to predict more than UAH 5 / kg for that period,” suggested Mr. Klimashevych.
In support of his predictions, the farmer drew attention to current wholesale prices for onions in their region. For high-quality products, sellers announce the price of up to UAH 3 / kg, and at the same time, there are many offers of medium-quality onions, which are sold at UAH 2.5-2.7 / kg. Wholesale consignments of substandard onions are offered at UAH 2.5 / kg.
The only thing Serhii is sure of is that onions in Ukraine should be grown exclusively by professionals in their field since the race for quick money on this crop, in most cases, ends in losses!
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