Overall, the value of exported onions rose by an average 21.6% for all exporting countries since 2015 when international sales of onions were valued at $3.3 billion. Year over year, the value of globally exported onions accelerated by 12.2% from 2018 to 2019.
Among continents, Asia sold the highest dollar worth of exported onions during 2019 with shipments valued at $1.45 billion or more than a third (36.4%) of the global total. In second place were exporters in Europe at 30.9%, while 17.2% of worldwide shipments of onions originated from North America. Smaller percentages came from Africa (8.3%), Latin America (3.7%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (3.6%) comprised mostly of exports from New Zealand and Australia.
For research purposes, the 6-digit Harmonized Tariff System code is 070310 for onions and shallots. A shallot is a small bulb that resembles an onion. Shallots are used to make pickles or as an onion substitute.
Onions Exports by Country
Countries
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of onions during 2019.
- Netherlands: US$815.2 million (20.5% of total onions exports)
- China: $604.4 million (15.2%)
- India: $364.7 million (9.1%)
- Mexico: $356 million (8.9%)
- United States: $287.7 million (7.2%)
- Egypt: $272.5 million (6.8%)
- Spain: $216.7 million (5.4%)
- New Zealand: $114 million (2.9%)
- Poland: $104.3 million (2.6%)
- France: $96.1 million (2.4%)
- Peru: $85.6 million (2.1%)
- Turkey: $53 million (1.3%)
- Germany: $45.1 million (1.1%)
- Italy: $43 million (1.1%)
- Canada: $41.9 million (1.1%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 87.8% of global onions exports in 2019.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing onions exporters since 2015 were: Turkey (up 187.7%), Poland (up 152.7%), New Zealand (up 100.5%) and Netherlands (up 75.1%).
Four countries posted declines in their exported onions sales namely: India (down -13.9%), Mexico (down -13.2%), Germany (down -2.4%) and Canada (down -1.7%).
Advantages
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for onions during 2019. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s exported onions and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- China: US$603.9 million (net export surplus up 26.8% since 2015)
- Netherlands: $597.7 million (up 53.8%)
- India: $325.3 million (down -17%)
- Mexico: $292 million (down -22.9%)
- Egypt: $272.5 million (up 0.8%)
- Spain: $170.7 million (up 14.7%)
- New Zealand: $112.9 million (up 100.2%)
- Peru: $85.6 million (up 34.8%)
- Poland: $38 million (up 36.2%)
- Uzbekistan: $32.9 million (down 0%)
- Argentina: $31.4 million (up 89.7%)
- South Africa: $30.3 million (up 32.8%)
- Pakistan: $27.5 million (up 46.9%)
- Australia: $23.7 million (up 42.8%)
- Afghanistan: $22.8 million (down 0%)
Overtaking the Netherlands in 2019, China earned the highest surplus in the international trade of onions. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms both countries’ strong competitive advantages for this specific product category.
Opportunities
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for onions during 2019. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s imported onions purchases and its exports for that same commodity.
- Vietnam: -US$296.1 million (net export deficit up 2,847% since 2015)
- United Kingdom: -$289.8 million (up 39.8%)
- Germany: -$186.4 million (up 67%)
- Malaysia: -$173.4 million (down -7.5%)
- United States: -$171.4 million (down -24.6%)
- Canada: -$136.7 million (up 48.7%)
- Japan: -$127.5 million (down -5.4%)
- Saudi Arabia: -$83.6 million (down -42.9%)
- Bangladesh: -$73.7 million (down -63.5%)
- Russia: -$68 million (down -39.2%)
- Belgium: -$67.6 million (up 40.6%)
- Sri Lanka: -$61.5 million (down -35.1%)
- United Arab Emirates: -$61.3 million (down -46.8%)
- Brazil: -$50.5 million (down -43%)
- Romania: -$45.1 million (up 250.3%)
Vietnam incurred the highest deficit in the international trade of onions. In turn, this negative cashflow highlights Vietnam’s strong competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for onions-supplying countries that help satisfy the consumer powerful demand.
Companies
Onions Exporting Companies
According to global trading platform Alibaba, the following companies are examples of onions-trading exporters. Home-country location is shown within parentheses.
- Aalia Gmbh (Germany)
- Agricola Dece SL (Spain)
- BHK Krakow Joint Venture Sp ZOO (Poland)
- Camill Alimentos S/A (United States)
- JDGC (France)
- Jinxiang Luteng Trading Co, Ltd (China)
- Naqshbandi Enterprise (Pakistan)
- Silas Export (Netherlands)
- SMA Trading (Egypt)
- Sri Parvathi Exports (India)
Searchable List of Onions Exporting Countries in 2019
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of the columns. Note that a 0% entry in the right-most column means no 2018 data was available.
| Rank | Exporter | Exported Onions (US$) | 2018-9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Netherlands | $815,232,000 | +19.9% |
| 2. | China | $604,387,000 | +18.6% |
| 3. | India | $364,660,000 | -13.3% |
| 4. | Mexico | $356,008,000 | -15.2% |
| 5. | United States | $287,698,000 | +24.2% |
| 6. | Egypt | $272,507,000 | +131% |
| 7. | Spain | $216,711,000 | +22.3% |
| 8. | New Zealand | $113,999,000 | +83.6% |
| 9. | Poland | $104,272,000 | +26.3% |
| 10. | France | $96,123,000 | +18.7% |
| 11. | Peru | $85,568,000 | +19.5% |
| 12. | Turkey | $53,042,000 | +219.2% |
| 13. | Germany | $45,088,000 | -7% |
| 14. | Italy | $43,003,000 | -4.9% |
| 15. | Canada | $41,876,000 | -8.1% |
| 16. | Uzbekistan | $32,916,000 | +141.5% |
| 17. | South Africa | $32,308,000 | -0.4% |
| 18. | Argentina | $32,105,000 | +49.7% |
| 19. | Pakistan | $31,482,000 | -35.6% |
| 20. | Australia | $27,993,000 | +57% |
| 21. | Austria | $27,337,000 | +21.8% |
| 22. | Afghanistan | $23,417,000 | 0% |
| 23. | Belgium | $23,280,000 | +23.1% |
| 24. | Chile | $20,416,000 | +85.3% |
| 25. | Yemen | $17,029,000 | -0.5% |
| 26. | South Korea | $16,680,000 | +1,489% |
| 27. | Kazakhstan | $15,831,000 | +104% |
| 28. | Indonesia | $11,623,000 | +84.5% |
| 29. | Russia | $10,638,000 | +82.7% |
| 30. | Morocco | $10,391,000 | -13% |
| 31. | Thailand | $9,952,000 | +24.5% |
| 32. | Senegal | $9,263,000 | +42.7% |
| 33. | Slovakia | $8,713,000 | +37.9% |
| 34. | Azerbaijan | $7,899,000 | -7% |
| 35. | Tajikistan | $7,659,000 | +98.8% |
| 36. | United Kingdom | $7,137,000 | +15.1% |
| 37. | Serbia | $6,642,000 | +22.9% |
| 38. | Guatemala | $6,542,000 | +32.9% |
| 39. | Denmark | $6,377,000 | +8.2% |
| 40. | Malaysia | $6,220,000 | -26.2% |
| 41. | Slovenia | $6,081,000 | +79.6% |
| 42. | Singapore | $4,941,000 | +40.6% |
| 43. | Czech Republic | $4,705,000 | +23.8% |
| 44. | United Arab Emirates | $4,652,000 | -68.7% |
| 45. | Iran | $4,146,000 | -96.7% |
| 46. | Greece | $4,042,000 | +236.8% |
| 47. | Portugal | $3,889,000 | +87.2% |
| 48. | Japan | $3,804,000 | +188.4% |
| 49. | Myanmar | $3,766,000 | -72.1% |
| 50. | Ukraine | $3,090,000 | -42.8% |
| 51. | Kyrgyzstan | $3,028,000 | +167.7% |
| 52. | Lithuania | $2,490,000 | -11.3% |
| 53. | Latvia | $2,317,000 | +70.4% |
| 54. | Ireland | $2,317,000 | +89% |
| 55. | North Macedonia | $2,237,000 | +42.4% |
| 56. | Brazil | $1,951,000 | -43.1% |
| 57. | Namibia | $1,816,000 | -52.5% |
| 58. | Albania | $1,195,000 | +266.6% |
| 59. | Belarus | $1,139,000 | -35.7% |
| 60. | Hungary | $1,122,000 | -23.2% |
| 61. | Turkmenistan | $1,117,000 | +13,863% |
| 62. | Madagascar | $1,058,000 | +89.9% |
| 63. | Sri Lanka | $823,000 | +96.4% |
| 64. | Vietnam | $771,000 | -61.4% |
| 65. | Croatia | $655,000 | +73.3% |
| 66. | Burkina Faso | $651,000 | +10% |
| 67. | Luxembourg | $610,000 | +24% |
| 68. | Sweden | $608,000 | -3.5% |
| 69. | Bulgaria | $605,000 | +52.4% |
| 70. | Nicaragua | $600,000 | +12.8% |
| 71. | Moldova | $505,000 | +2.4% |
| 72. | Philippines | $504,000 | +888.2% |
| 73. | Hong Kong | $330,000 | +22.2% |
| 74. | Kenya | $311,000 | -96.3% |
| 75. | Estonia | $298,000 | +37.3% |
| 76. | Romania | $291,000 | -12.1% |
| 77. | Georgia | $279,000 | +244.4% |
| 78. | Ecuador | $252,000 | -25.2% |
| 79. | Jamaica | $238,000 | +22.7% |
| 80. | Colombia | $200,000 | -93.7% |
| 81. | Sudan | $197,000 | -66.6% |
| 82. | Oman | $193,000 | -83.6% |
| 83. | Algeria | $185,000 | +59.5% |
| 84. | Curaçao | $174,000 | -27.5% |
| 85. | Costa Rica | $172,000 | -26.5% |
| 86. | Norway | $165,000 | +725% |
| 87. | Honduras | $156,000 | -31.3% |
| 88. | Ghana | $139,000 | +595% |
| 89. | Lebanon | $138,000 | -84.3% |
| 90. | Uruguay | $121,000 | +572.2% |
| 91. | Mauritania | $110,000 | 0% |
| 92. | Taiwan | $99,000 | -43.4% |
| 93. | Tanzania | $90,000 | -51.9% |
| 94. | Finland | $79,000 | +71.7% |
| 95. | Switzerland | $55,000 | +120% |
| 96. | Venezuela | $45,000 | +1,400% |
| 97. | Jordan | $43,000 | -87.8% |
| 98. | Syria | $37,000 | -98.7% |
| 99. | Tunisia | $33,000 | -87% |
| 100. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $32,000 | +18.5% |
| 101. | Niger | $27,000 | -99.8% |
| 102. | Panama | $21,000 | 0% |
| 103. | Cambodia | $17,000 | +466.7% |
| 104. | Iraq | $13,000 | +1,200% |
| 105. | Dominican Republic | $13,000 | -93% |
| 106. | Laos | $12,000 | -98.8% |
| 107. | Bangladesh | $8,000 | -66.7% |
| 108. | Uganda | $8,000 | -97.6% |
| 109. | Rwanda | $7,000 | -74.1% |
| 110. | Suriname | $4,000 | 0% |
| 111. | Iceland | $4,000 | -33.3% |
| 112. | Guyana | $3,000 | +200% |
| 113. | Ivory Coast | $3,000 | -99.3% |
| 114. | Benin | $3,000 | -66.7% |
| 115. | Antigua/Barbuda | $3,000 | +50% |
| 116. | Botswana | $3,000 | 0% |
| 117. | Ethiopia | $2,000 | -96% |
| 118. | Mozambique | $2,000 | 0% |
| 119. | Togo | $2,000 | -97.8% |
| 120. | Zambia | $1,000 | 0% |
| 121. | Montenegro | $1,000 | 0% |
| 122. | Mali | $1,000 | -95% |
| 123. | Cameroon | $1,000 | -99.4% |
| 124. | Cyprus | $1,000 | -97.1% |
See also Top Cucumbers Exporting Countries, Soya Beans Exports by Country, Asparagus Exports by Country and Top Sweet Pepper and Chili Pepper Exports
Research Sources:
Alibaba, supplier information for onions. Accessed on May 2, 2020
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on May 2, 2020
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on May 2, 2020
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on May 2, 2020
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on May 2, 2020
Wikipedia, Onion. Accessed on May 2, 2020
