Open access publications in the SLU publication database

Swedish onion production has more than 50 percent domestic market share, and is
geographically concentrated to the regions of Skåne and Kalmar County. While
production is increasing in Skåne, it is decreasing in Kalmar County. In this report, which
is started by a description of the business area, a project with the overall goal to
contribute to more competitive onion cultivation in Sweden is described. The aim of the
investigation has been to find factors in the cultivation, harvest or storage of onion, which
could give explanations to the quality problems and wastage of the product, and to
investigate the difference between different growers.
In this investigation a compilation has been performed of the delivery data and
wastage data to a producer organization, with different types of onion quality defects,
during five seasons; from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009. Further, a selection of growers has
been interviewed about cultivation, handling and storage praxis, as well as their view of
business enterprise and development.
The results show that the losses of both yellow and red onion due to different types of
quality defects were extensive, especially for red onion. Based on total amount of
delivered onion for all growers during five seasons, the percent of discarded onions
varied between 11.4 and 15.8% for yellow onion, and between 16.7 and 29.7% for red
onion. The largest losses were due to the categories diseased/rotten/soggy/moldy
(32.7/37.7% for yellow and red onion resp.), naked/thin peel (24.3/25.2%), and
cracked/defect peel/other defect (16.1/15.0%). Some of the quality defects were
dependent on the time of delivery, and had increased during storage. Both for yellow and
red onion, mainly the categories diseased/rotten/soggy/moldy and soft/buckled increased
during storage.
There was a difference in percentage of discarded onion between the different
growers, and the percentage yellow/red onion varied between 11.5/21.8% and
22.2/35.9% for the individual grower in average during the five investigated seasons. The
percentage of discarded onion also varied for each grower between the seasons. Also
within a season the variation between growers was large, and for the season 2008/2009
the losses varied between 5.7% to 20.5% for yellow onion, and 14.3 to 36.9% for red
onion between the individual growers. There was a large difference in yield of both
yellow and red onion between the different growers, and the highest yield was 2-3 times
higher than the lowest. In general over the five seasons, no correlation could be found
between the total production for the individual grower, and the extent of quality losses.
The interviews of the growers showed that the praxis of cultivation, handling and
storage varied between growers. Choice of onion variety, types of fertilizers, amount of
fertilizers, percentage of onion tops that have fallen over at harvest, handling at harvest,
drying/curing after harvest, and storage conditions and facilities differed between the
growers. Recommended praxis does not seem to be followed by some of the growers, or
alternatively the recommendations are unclear.
At the interviews about business enterprise and development, it was shown that the
grower’s advisors and grower colleagues were important sources of inspiration. The
growers’ producer organization was also for most growers a source of inspiration, but not
courses or customers. The main obstacles for development mentioned were negative
pricing and profitability mentioned, along with shortage of land and difficulties with crop
rotation.