Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Within a large country like the USA the market can be supplied year-round
with onions from different climatic zones. Thus autumn-sown crops grown in
the southern and south-western states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and
California produce bulbs for sale between late February and June. Crops from
the irrigated mineral soils of the western states of California, Colorado, Oregon
and Idaho produce large, sweet bulbs for sale from summer until January.
The north-eastern and northern states of New York across to Minnesota
produce pungent, long-storing bulbs for marketing between September and
April.
Because of the global trade in dry bulb onions, and because of the many
techniques for growing and storing onions for sale year-round described later
in this topic, bulb onions are available throughout the year in most countries.
Onion prices fluctuate from year to year and, because there is a global
market in onion bulbs, there is little that producers in any one region can do to
control the market and stabilize prices. Better communication about the areas
planted in production zones, the effects of weather in real time and the state of
markets worldwide are beginning to evolve. Commercial web sites that supply
price information on an international basis are also starting to appear.
Nevertheless, swings in supply and demand from year to year and unforeseen
gluts on international markets are likely to remain part of the onion supply
picture (Bosch-Serra and Currah, 2002). In Europe, the onions that are
marketed must meet certain statutory quality standards (Commission of the
European Communities, 1983, 1997).
Trends in global onion production are difficult to predict and depend on a
complex mixture of technological and economic factors. For example, continual
improvements in growing, harvesting and storage techniques, usually based on
research, along with the introduction of more mechanization, have reduced the
labour input and improved the quality and economics of the crop in the UK
(MAFF/ADAS, 1982). As a result, national production rose eightfold between
1960 and 1981. In 1963 Egypt was the world's leading exporter of bulb onions,
sending 190 million t overseas, mainly to northern Europe. Bulb onions were
second only to cotton in value as an export crop. Changes resulting from Nile
flood control resulted in an epidemic of white rot disease (see Chapter 5) and, in
1986, Egyptian onion exports were down to 21 million t, though they have
since recovered. Thus, unforeseen consequences of technological change
almost destroyed the export industry in the country with the oldest records of
onion cultivation.
Shallots are of much less economic importance than their larger-bulbed
relatives. They are mainly produced by small-scale and home-garden growers,
but they are particularly important in the humid tropics since the local strains
have the pest and disease resistance necessary to grow in that environment
(Currah and Proctor, 1990). In France, they are an important commercial
crop with about 2400 ha under cultivation, giving an annual production of
about 50,000 t (FAO, 2007).
