Onion crop seriously affected by severe weather conditions

By: Gáspár Kinga Date: 2022. 07. 19. 07:23

Hungarian cuisine is really fond of onion, but this year we well really feel like onion crop getting more and more “hot”, because of severe weather conditions.

Our favourite vegetable ingredient is in danger

Although red onion tolerates drought better compared to other vegetables, this year’s crop is in danger due to extreme weather conditions. Due to the lack of rainfall in the post-emergence growth phase, the crop yield falls significantly short of expectations and previous years. Where irrigation has been solved, you can hope for a medium or better crop.

Compared to the same period of last year, the price of domestically grown red onions rose by +31%, while imported onions saw a significant +60% increase in sales, which can be attributed to the low yield averages in Dutch and international cultivation. By the way, this year, based on the submitted area-based subsidies, red onions are grown on 1,292 hectares, of which 910 hectares are sown in the spring and 383 are sown in the fall. In 2021, in comparison, red onions were grown on 1,574 hectares, so it can be stated that the domestic production area has indeed decreased.

The national yield average in 2021 was 39.2 tons per hectare, which resulted in a total yield of 61.7 thousand tons last year. In 2021, the amount of red onion exported was 620 tons, and the imported amount was 24,033 tons – NAK told agrarszektor.hu.

Agrarszektor.hu