South Africa: Midway through a steady onion season

They have been lifting onions since January (Northern Cape’s onion season ended earlier because of rain) and now they are midway through their season, says Arno van der Merwe, while busy planting onions for the next season. Right: Onions from the Sandveld (photos supplied by Knapdaar agri) “Onions give you more room in their marketing than potatoes. The fact that you can store onions reduces the risk,” he says. "We'll be on the market with our onions until the end of July and replanting begins early in August.” It has been a steady onion year with fair prices, he says, with the majority of their onions supplied to the RSA Group market agents at the Johannesburg and Durban municipal markets. Onion deliveries to Durban were disrupted by the floods and concomitant power outages and for a few days the municipal market had no diesel for its generators. Arno notes that their agents were remarkable in how they managed under the circumstances. Potential to expand African onion exports ...