The Netherlands exports onions to 140 countries around the world. Yet there is no end to the regrets of this country in Europe. Holland Onion Association's journal also wrote a few days ago - due to India's onion, the old share of onion cannot be restored in big markets like Bangladesh.
The Netherlands may have reason to regret it. Because, Bangladesh is not only a big onion market, but the country is number 1 in the world in onion import in terms of quantity. This figure was obtained by comparing country-wise onion import data.
According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), Bangladesh will import 7 lakh 27 thousand tonnes of onion in 2022. No other country imported more onion than Bangladesh that year. According to the United Nations Comtrade database, the largest onion importer after Bangladesh in 2022 is the United States. Their import amount was 6 lakh 60 thousand tons. The next position was in Malaysia. Their import is one hundred and five lakh tons.
Bangladesh is not far behind in terms of local production. Bangladesh is among the top 10 countries in the world in onion production. According to the United States Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bangladesh ranks seventh in onion production, but domestic production is not meeting the demand. As a result, the import of this product, which is essential for cooking, is increasing, but the amount of this import is so much that it has taken Bangladesh to the top of the world list.
Economists believe that there is a relationship between the increase in people's income and the consumption of onions. Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) research director Khandkar Golam Moazzem said, it has been seen that the consumption of onion also increases with the increase in people's income. Now the consumption of onion has increased due to increasing demand for processed food. This demand cannot be met with local production. Because of this, onions have to be imported.
There is no fear that Bangladesh's position at the top list of onion imports will change in the future. Because, with a month left to the end of 2023, the previous year's import record has also been broken. According to the data of NBR, the import of onion has exceeded 8 lakh 64 thousand tons in 11 months of this year. That is, it can be assumed that the name of Bangladesh will be in the top list of imports even at the end of 2023.
Let's go back to the Netherlands. One has to go back four years to understand the regret of Europe's top onion producer over not being able to export onions to Bangladesh. Dutch onion is the first import in the Bangladesh market after India stopped onion exports in October 2019. In the first half of 2020, the Netherlands Onion Association reported that Bangladesh was one of the top 12 destinations for Dutch onion exports at that time.
However, India lifted the ban on onion exports in March of that year. As a result, the onion traders of this country turned away from the Netherlands and started importing from India again. Because, the easiest and cheapest onion can be brought from this neighboring country, which is the largest onion exporter in the world. Since then, the regrets of the European country began to be written in the virtual pages of the journal.
But the regrets of Dutch onion traders may not last long. On December 7, India banned onion exports till March 31. Since the onion market in Bangladesh has gone up overnight, traders have now started looking for alternative markets to import onions. Exporters from the Netherlands can be expected to take advantage of this opportunity. Because Bangladesh is the biggest onion market
