A farm without storage sells when it has to. A farm with storage sells when it wants to. That one sentence sums up why we built our own warehouse for around 13,000 tonnes and why we treat it as a commercial tool, not just walls and a roof over our onions. In this post we show how storage lets us manage sales over time and what a wholesale buyer concretely gains from it.
The harvest glut problem
After harvest, the market gets flooded. Everyone harvested at roughly the same time, everyone wants to sell, and buyers know it. Prices at peak supply are often the lowest of the entire season, yet many farms have to sell exactly then because they have nowhere to keep the crop.
The 2025 season made this obvious: with large onion surpluses across Europe, the outcome depended not on production alone but on quality, sorting and the ability to wait. Whoever had to sell immediately handed over their onions on the buyer's terms. Whoever could store them negotiated from a completely different position.
We grow around 250 hectares of onions with yields of around 60 tonnes per hectare. Selling that volume in the few weeks after harvest would make no sense for us or for our buyers, who need product evenly throughout the year, not one huge pile at once.
How managing sales works in practice
The principle is simple: after harvest and drying, onions go into storage and reach the market in batches, on a schedule agreed with buyers. How we prepare onions for long storage is covered in detail in our guide to onion storage. Here we focus on what happens next, which is the trading side.
For us, managing sales means three things:
- We plan releases in advance. With regular buyers we agree delivery windows many months ahead. A packing plant knows it will get the agreed volume from us in February because we reserve it in advance across our whole season schedule.
- We do not sell under pressure. When the market is saturated, we can wait. When demand appears, we have product ready to ship at short notice.
- We release product sorted to order. Before shipping, every batch passes through an optical sorter and packing line, so the size grade and packaging match what each buyer ordered.
Storage does not improve onion quality, but it preserves it and lets us release product exactly when the buyer needs it. That is the difference between selling a crop and serving a regular customer.
Onions all year round: our availability calendar
Storage is the most important element of year-round availability, but not the only one. We combine three sources of product:
| Period | Source of onions |
|---|---|
| Early summer | onion sets from the early harvest |
| Late summer and autumn | fresh harvest from spring sowing |
| Winter and spring | onions from storage, released in batches |
This way we have no dead season. Before last year's stored onions run out, set-grown onions are already reaching the market, followed by the main harvest. A buyer who partners with us gets continuity of supply for twelve months.
What the wholesale buyer gains
From the perspective of a packing plant or processor, our storage facility means concrete benefits:
- Continuity of supply. One farm, one quality standard, deliveries all year round. No hunting for a new supplier in the middle of winter: quantities and schedules are reserved in advance across our whole season.
- Production planning. The buyer sets the schedule in advance and receives product in the windows they chose, instead of holding large stocks themselves.
- Consistent quality regardless of the month. Onions from storage are re-selected before shipping, so a February batch looks the same as a September one.
- One conversation instead of many. Size grade, packaging, transport and dates are all agreed in one place, because everything happens here: from field to pallet.
How wholesale cooperation, delivery forms and the first order work is described in our post on wholesale onion supply.
Quality cannot wait, so we watch it constantly
Managing sales only works if the onions in storage keep their quality. That is why, before the product even goes into the warehouse, we dry it for 2-4 days until the neck is dry and closed. In the warehouse we maintain controlled ventilation and inspect batches regularly.
Before shipping, every batch passes through the DOWNS CropVision optical sorter, which scans each onion in 360 degrees and rejects defective pieces, stones and debris at up to 100 tonnes per hour. Only product we can vouch for goes to the buyer. We run everything according to the principles of Integrated Plant Production, with GlobalG.A.P., GRASP and FSA Gold (Farm Sustainability Assessment, the highest level) certifications.
What about the price
We do not publish a price list, because onion prices change throughout the year and depend on size grade, packaging and order volume. We calculate our price based on current market prices and agree it individually with each buyer.
Storage gives both sides flexibility here: we can agree fixed delivery windows settled against the market, or larger releases on dates that suit the buyer. You will find details of our offer and varieties on the onion offer page.
Looking for an onion supplier who can maintain deliveries all year round? Write to us via the contact page or see our onion offer. To learn how we care for onions in the warehouse, read our guide to onion storage.
