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Asprincipais
MAINVEGETABLES
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Competition
Onion imports have dropped to 183.1 thousand tons in 2016, against 274.6
thousand tons in the previous year, from data released by the Secretariat of
Foreign Trade (Secex), of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign
Trade (MDIC). In value, the total amounted to US$ 70.1 million, below the US$
100.4 million registered in 2015. “There is need for a political initiative for im-
posing tariffs on products coming from abroad to the Brazilian market “, ad-
vocates Luiz Carlos Laurentino, president of the Santa Catarina Association of
Onion Producers (Aprocesc). He also maintains that it is not possible to com-
pete with the onions coming from Holland, where agriculture is subsidized by
the government.
IBGE totaled 536.6 thousand tons in 2016.
However, this volume may have surpassed
580 thousand tons, according toagronomist
Jurandi Teodoro Gugel, from the Santa Ca-
tarina State Rural Extension and Research
Company (Epagri) – Agricultural Center of
Socio-Economy and Planning (Cepa). In Gu-
gel’s view, the favorable weather conditions
and intense use of technology contributed
towards the record crop in Santa Catarina in
the 2016/17 growing season.
In Santa Catarina, the area devoted
to onions surpassed 20 thousand hect-
ares in 2016. “The growers in Santa Catari-
na reached productivity rates of upwards of
30 tons per hectare andmany of themeven
achievedmore than 50 tons per hectare”, he
says. The crop was also good in the other
main onion producing regions. As a result,
farm gate prices dropped. Until April 2017,
the value fetched by the producers in Santa
Catarina continuedon thedeclineand there
were no signs of any changes, as the com-
mercializationperiodwas coming toaclose,
and soon onions produced in other tradi-
tional regions were expected to reach the
market. On that occasion,more than70%of
the volume produced in Santa Catarina had
already been commercialized.
Farmgate prices fluctuated fromR$ 0.55
to R$ 0.60 per kilogram of class 3 to 5 on-
ions in the main producing regions in San-
taCatarina. According toGugel, thesevalues
were below production costs for the sector
in Santa Catarina. “This confirms what the
supply chain was anticipating since Febru-
ary 2017, that the perspectives for better
prices were remote and with repercussions
that will affect the coming onion crop year,
possibly with some reduction in the plant-
ed area “, explains Gugel. The decision on
the next planting season (2017/18) will also
dependon the access to credit lines to cover
production costs, now being negotiated be-
tween the farmers and finance agents.
Coming after Santa Catarina, the main
states that supply onions are Bahia, Minas
Gerais, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul,
Goiás, Paraná and Pernambuco. The farm-
ers in Bahia harvested 255.2 thousand
tons in 2016, followed by Minas Gerais,
with 185.5 thousand tons, according to
data from the IBGE. “The picture suggests
exceptional production volumes in the
main producing regions and countries, re-
sulting into abundant supply of the crop
“, Gugel warns. He also observes that the
Brazilian market has been adversely af-
fected by onion imports. In recent years,
by onions coming from Holland. Howev-
er, imports have been on a receding trend
since the second half of 2016. “This in-
dicates that the lower farmer gate pric-
es stem from the abundant supply of the
crop in the present season “, he argues.
ACEBOLADOS
Principais estadosprodutores
de cebola/toneladas
Estados
2016
2017*
Santa Catarina 536.604 463.200
Bahia
255.200 300.200
Minas Gerais
185.524 183.784
São Paulo
179.721 179.721
Rio Grande do Sul 144.341 175.095
Goiás
117.410 103.880
Paraná
101.204 118.757
Pernambuco
27.720 63.250
Sub-total
1.547.724 1.587.887
Brasil
1.563.986 1.605.053
Fonte:
IBGE/LSPA * Estimativa março de 2017.
BALANÇACOMERCIALDACEBOLA
Importação
2015
2016
US$
100.463.834 70.140.270
Kg
274.678.338 183.157.612
Exportação
US$
2.003.913 4.972.185
Kg
4.921.007 21.818.839
Fonte:
MDIC/Aliceweb – Elaboração Editora Gazeta.
onion producers
sabor total
PRODUÇÃOBRASILEIRA DE CEBOLA
2016 2017* %
Produção (t)
1.563.986 1.605.053 2,6%
Área colhida (ha)
56.169 57.066 1,6%
Produtividade (t/ha) 27,8
28,1 1%
Fonte:
LSPA/IBGE * Estimativa, março de 2017.
total flavor
