By Mark Wocial, Certified Global Business Professional, Wocial & Associates LLC
The U.S. Census Bureau International Trade Statistics distinguish between not-certified organic and certified organic onion sets for export purposes. After several years of increases, U.S. exports of onion sets declined last year to 90,000 metric tons (MT), valued at $47 million. While exports of not-certified organic onion sets increased, the decline last year was due to a very sharp drop in exports of certified organic onion sets.
In 2020, exports of not-certified organic onion sets reached 82,000 MT, valued at $42 million. Mexico was the largest export destination. Shipments to Mexico reached 43,000 MT, valued at $23 million. Exports to Canada amounted to almost 14,000 MT, valued at $5 million. Taiwan was the third largest foreign destination (13,000 MT), followed by Panama (3,200 MT), the United Kingdom (3,100 MT) and Nicaragua (1,300 MT).
In 2019, exports of certified organic onion sets reached almost 59,000 MT, valued at $27 million, which represented 40 percent of all onion set exports. Last year, exports dropped to only 7,700 MT, valued at $4.7 million. In the last several years, exports to Mexico represented, on average, over 90 percent of shipments. In 2019, shipments of certified organic onion sets to Mexico reached 57,000 MT. In 2020, exports to Mexico fell to only 4,600 MT. Other international markets for certified organic onion sets last year included Panama (1,400 MT), followed by the U.K. (900 MT), Australia (210 MT) and the Dominican Republic (150 MT).
The U.S. Census Bureau International Trade Statistics do not distinguish between not-certified organic and certified organic onion sets for import purposes. U.S. imports of onion sets remained fairly unchanged in the last few years. In 2020, imports amounted to 9,000 MT, valued at close to $6 million. In the past several years, a vast majority of imported onion sets came from Canada. In 2020, Mexico was the largest supplier (3,000 MT), followed by Canada (2,000 MT), Spain (1,800 MT) and the Netherlands (1,000 MT). These countries accounted for 84 percent of U.S. imports. Onion sets were also imported from Peru, China, Chile, India and Colombia.
Author’s note: This information is based on the author’s analysis of the international trade data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division.
