Fresh Yellow Onions (Netherlands, Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Egypt, Peru)

Dutch yellow onions all year and counter-season onions from New Zealand, Egypt and Peru, by class and size band

Yellow onions are Europe's most widely used onion - golden-yellow skin, light yellow or white flesh and a strong flavour with a slightly sweet note - and they clear customs under HS 0703.10 like every other onion. The UNECE onion standard grades them Class I or Class II by the maximum equatorial diameter; European supermarkets buy mostly Class I, and Class II goes largely to food processing or budget packs. The Netherlands leads the trade. Onions are its most-produced vegetable by volume: the 2023 harvest was 1.28 million MT on 29,300 hectares, and 1.18 million MT of Dutch-origin onions were exported that year, all year round, to more than 130 countries. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations put the Netherlands at USD 1.00 billion and 1.81 million MT, rising to 1.96 million MT in 2025, with destinations including Senegal (212,000 MT), the UK (194,000 MT), Côte d'Ivoire (158,000 MT), Poland (157,000 MT), Germany (126,000 MT), Belgium (101,000 MT), Guinea (88,000 MT), Mauritania (56,000 MT), Malaysia (42,000 MT) and the Dominican Republic (26,000 MT). Spain produced 1.15 million MT of onions in 2023 and declared 314,000 MT of exports in 2024, mainly to Germany, the UK, Portugal and France, and Poland declared 164,000 MT, mainly to the Netherlands, the UK and Germany. Those are declared export values, not offers.

Counter-season onions fill Europe's import peak from March to June. Egypt, the largest non-European supplier with about 8.6% of Europe's onion imports, ships mainly from March to July with a June peak, and in 2025 its yellow onions came to market ahead of the red; New Zealand exports about 85% of its crop, ships to Europe mainly from April to the end of June, and saw the 9.6% EU tariff on its onions removed by the EU-New Zealand free trade agreement from 1 May 2024; Peru sends its yellow types abroad and declared 308,000 MT in 2024, mainly to the USA, Colombia and Spain; and the UK has a gap of about six weeks in July and August. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers yellow onions from packers and exporters in the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, New Zealand, Egypt and Peru to importers, wholesalers, supermarkets and processors in Europe, West Africa, Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, against the phytosanitary certificate that EU entry requires under Regulation (EU) 2019/2072, a certificate of origin, GLOBALG.A.P. certification where European retail asks for it and an inspection at loading where the buyer wants one. EU residues follow Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, with tighter limits from some Dutch and German buyers, and Regulation (EU) 2023/915 caps cadmium at 0.030 mg/kg and lead at 0.10 mg/kg in onions. Pungent dry onions store for 6-8 months at 0°C and 65-75% relative humidity, but only briefly in sacks, where air moves poorly; they travel at about 0-4°C, never below 0°C, with fresh air supplied, in reefers on long voyages or in actively ventilated or open-sided containers, packed in wide-meshed jute or plastic bags, crates or cartons. Cargo moves on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, priced per MT for the origin, class, size band and pack. Send the origin, class, size band, bag, quantity, discharge port and shipment month, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.