Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 17.5
Trade in Garlic: Exports, 2004 and 2005.
Quantities year 2004
(mt)
Quantities year 2005
(mt)
Value year 2004
($ millions)
Value year 2005
($ millions)
Country
World
1 455 383
1 515 814
707 158
923 862
Argentina
100 637
97 301
66.6
85.0
Bangladesh
1484
1484
0.8
0.8
Belgium
1583
2103
3.1
4.1
Cambodia
1714
1714
0.5
0.5
Chile
7535
5603
7.0
5.9
China, People's
Republic of
1 127 833
1 158 717
419.1
563.5
Egypt
4272
1894
2.3
0.9
France
12 314
12 462
29.0
33.9
Germany
1226
1288
2.8
3.3
Hungary
1334
1364
1.6
1.9
India
2236
32 495
0.9
8.5
Italy
10 256
8894
18.9
18.5
Lebanon
1501
177
0.1
0.1
Malaysia
50 415
42 591
9.2
8.0
Mexico
9357
10 739
10.4
14.4
Myanmar
2918
5559
0.5
1.7
Netherlands
8945
13 279
13.0
21.1
Niger
1493
383
0.2
0.1
Philippines
5094
6402
1.7
5.8
Saudi Arabia
3732
1901
0.8
0.6
Singapore
1768
1531
0.8
0.8
Spain
65 993
65 111
92.9
112.7
Thailand
514
3882
0.3
2.4
Turkmenistan
1880
1749
1.2
1.6
United Arab Emirates
7978
16,609
2.6
5.6
United Kingdom
2750
978
3.5
2.3
United States
5605
6020
7.8
9.2
Note: Countries exporting >1000 mt of garlic are listed.
Note the large fluctuations between years for volumes exported from some countries.
Source: Data from FAOSTAT (2008).
means that the outward appearance of onions is increasingly
important as a selling point. So imports of fresh, attractive
onions from the southern hemisphere are preferred by the
buyers at times when those out of store in Europe look
rather jaded. Onion markets are intensely competitive and
supermarkets buyers use this factor to drive down prices to
producers.
Within Asia, there are important trade flows of pungent
red onions from India and Pakistan to markets in Singapore,
Malaysia and the Arabian Gulf states. The special require-
ments for size and colour of these markets are well known
to merchants in the region. In Pakistan, for example, hard
pink or red onions produced in desert areas of Sindh prov-
ince can be stored in the field in sacks for up to eight
months: at the merchants' premises in Karachi they are
graded for size and then sent to the appropriate regional
markets around the Indian Ocean. On a world scale, China
is listed as the largest onion producer (FAOSTAT 2008).
However, these figures may be questionable, since the
leafy species
Allium fistulosum,
or Japanese bunching
onion, is consumed on a very large scale in China and may
possibly be included in the reports of 'dry bulb onion'
