Onion prices swing wildly, production, sales and storage regulation fails, need to stabilize the market through channels and seedling quantities
Domestic onions that fetched a high price of 270 yuan per bag (15 kg) of large bulbs last year are now facing a situation of oversupply and falling prices this year, with farm-gate prices halved to only 150 yuan per bag. Although the harvest season is now near its end, delivery trucks loaded with onions are still busily coming and going on the roads of Pingtung, and the burden on production areas is heavy.
According to Agriculture and Food Agency statistics, this year's onion planting area increased by more than 100 hectares compared with last year, with about 72,000 metric tons of domestic onions circulating on the market, an increase of 22% over previous years; the harvest periods for onions in central and southern Taiwan overlap, and large quantities of fresh onions are pouring into the market at the same time, urgently awaiting sale, while cold storage warehouses in all districts are also full, making it difficult to regulate and ease the situation.
Why exactly did storage regulation fail in the production areas this time? How should the onion market be stabilized? "Upstream and Downstream" visited production areas in person, along with major onion wholesalers in Pingtung and farmers' associations in various districts, hoping to understand the plight of domestic onions from the production, sales and storage ends.
Breaking through unstable production and sales? The fundamental principle: before planting, you must know who you will hand the crop to
Hsieh Hsin-hui believes that sales channels must be operated long-term and steadily; most of the farmers who ran into problems this time had not settled their downstream channels, "Some people saw everyone making big money last year, so this year they planted six or seven jia more, but they had not even discussed how to sell it. Now they are running around asking for help, and there is simply no way."
Judging from the operating model of Dahe Onion Production Cooperative, the cooperative first negotiates planting quantities with seed companies at the beginning of the year, then prepares warehouses and negotiates channels based on the planned cultivation area; and to establish stable channel relationships, the cooperative also imports onions during the gap period for domestic onions to meet channel demand.
In recent years, onion prices have swung wildly. To stabilize onion production and sales, Hsieh Hsin-hui offers this management principle: "No matter what crop it is, before planting, you must know who you will hand it to." Otherwise, expanding planting when prices are good and unstable channels will both add risk to onions, a short-term crop.