On the back of a poor year for exports, industry body Onions New Zealand is positive the strong start to the season will offer an improvement on exports.
Poor weather and increased competition pushed New Zealand’s onion export down 16 per cent to NZ$81.4m (US$54.64m) in the 2014/15 year to June, down from NZ$97.1m the year earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand.
In terms of volume, the country’s key crop saw a 3.5 per cent decline in export volumes to 174,000 tonnes.
'Everybody had a really weird spring last year. The plants struggled,' Onions NZ chairman Michael Ahern told Business Desk.
This season, Ahern said the drop in the New Zealand dollar should prove helpful during the country’s onion export period from January to May, with a drop in shipping rates also favouring exporters.
