One of the UK's leading onion growers and processors Parripak Foods is warning that the number of growers and plantings in the UK are dwindling, while peeling is running at over capacity.

"Increased foreign competition could lead to a further reduction in UK growers and processors," said James Parrish of Parripak Foods. "Planting figures in the UK are down by 18 per cent and the story is no better in central Europe where heavy rainfalls and droughts in Spain have all played a part." Parrish believes that the lowest sustained prices in 15 years in 2004 put many growers off planting onions this year. "Reduced planting figures are already showing that in 2005, some growers are either cutting back or have even stopped growing onions all together," he said.

"Although set crops have been reasonable, the drilled crops could prove a smaller size than last year. From a processing point of view, when the crop is small, it reduces our throughputs considerably."

All eyes are on Russia at Parripak at this point in the season as the volume taken by the eastern European source can have a considerable impact on pricing in he UK. "If Russia starts buying in bulk from western Europe, then prices could be average to high," said Parrish. " If they don't, the prices will possibly be only average. In the second week of the new export season, Holland only exported 100 tonnes to Russia."

Poland creates extremely fierce competition for the UK on peeled onions and just four months ago processor Focal Foods went into administration. But Parrish said there is still too much peeling capacity in the market and peeled prices are lower than they were in 1990.

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