UK onion growers are forecasting a good quality crop and rejecting earlier fears of a substantially smaller yield. Growers say that the harvest is just getting started with slightly lighter volumes than recent years off a smaller planted area.
John Patrick, chairman of the British Onion Growers Association (BOPA) said: “The onion sector is starting to get used to the rollercoaster growing environment that we have seen replicated again this year.”
There are two categories of UK onions as Nick Douglas, managing director of co-operative G’s Growers and a director of BOPA, explains. He says that the set onion crop planted at the start of the year got off to a better start than the spring drilled crop. “The set crop established well, and although it was slow growing after that because of the cold, the five weeks of good weather we have had recently has made a difference and came just at the right time.”
The crop is running a week to two behind last year in terms of harvesting dates, as is the drilled crop, which although establishing well in terms of early plant development, went on to spend a long spell in the ground “not doing much” due to the cool spring temperatures, said Douglas.
“Clearly we are not looking at a bumper year either on the drilled or the set crop, but we will not be a million miles behind recent averages. We are just waiting to see what happens over the next one to two months and if the weather is on our side, we stand a good chance of getting the harvest in by the end of September or early in October.”
BOPA's forecast tonnage for 2013 is 375,000 tonnes compared to 380,000t last year and 370,000t four years ago. Planted area is the lowest it has been since 2010 at 9,316ha.
Patrick described the set crop as “remarkably robust” and expects pricing to remain steady as imported onions from New Zealand clear the market.
