Kazakhstan sharply increased onion exports to the UAE, Pakistan and Poland

Published 2024년 4월 4일

Tridge summary

Kazakhstan, along with its neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, is experiencing a significant surplus of onions, leading to a drastic drop in exports by almost fivefold to 15.4 thousand tons in February 2024. Despite efforts to diversify export destinations, with Pakistan being the largest market followed by countries like Poland, the UAE, Afghanistan, Georgia, and Iraq, the country is struggling to offload the excess produce. This has resulted in instances where high-quality onions are being fed to sheep. According to EastFruit analysts, this phenomenon, attributed to overinvestment and speculation in onion cultivation, recurs approximately every three years, leading to a cycle of surplus and plummeting prices. This issue is not isolated to Kazakhstan but is a regional challenge, complicating the export of the surplus.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

According to EastFruit analysts, Kazakhstan, which, like its neighbors Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, faced a huge surplus of onions on the country’s domestic market, was unable to solve the problem of its export. In particular, in February 2024, onion exports from Kazakhstan decreased by almost 5 times and amounted to 15.4 thousand tons. However, when compared with the usual geography of onion exports from Kazakhstan, we should note enormous progress in the diversification of supplies. The main onion market for Kazakhstan in December-February was Pakistan, where they managed to export 77.4 thousand tons of fresh onions. In second place was Poland, which purchased 4.1 thousand tons of onions from Kazakhstan during this period. About 3 thousand tons of onions were exported to the UAE, and this can be considered an achievement, because this direction is very promising, especially considering the prospects for a chronic shortage of onions in Asia in the coming years. Also, among the ...

Source: Eastfruit