Egypt doubles onion exports to EU in MY 2022/23

In total, in the period between July 2022 and June 2023, Egypt has shipped 128,000 tonnes of onions to the EU market. For comparison, the Egyptian export volumes did not exceed 60,000 tonnes annually during the previous three marketing years. Nevertheless, current volumes are still lower than a record figure of 165,000 tonnes exported from Egypt to the EU in the MY 2018/19.

The main reason for such a sharp rise in European importers’ demand for Egyptian onions was the onion crop failure in the EU due to drought in summer last year. Local farmers’ stocks were rapidly depleting, and Egypt started increasing its supplies to the EU in spring 2023. In addition, the devaluation of the Egyptian pound made products from Egypt more competitive in price in the global market.