Onion · guide
Onions look like an easy first export, but they are a bulky, perishable, low-margin crop where a bad curing job or a late vessel eats the whole profit. This guide walks through the process in the order you will actually meet each problem.
| Market | Imports | Year |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $16.5B | 2024 |
| Germany | $8.8B | 2024 |
| United Kingdom | $5.2B | 2024 |
| India | $5.1B | 2024 |
| France | $4.8B | 2024 |
| Canada | $4.1B | 2024 |
| Market | Exports | Year |
|---|---|---|
| China | $12.3B | 2024 |
| Mexico | $10.7B | 2024 |
| Netherlands | $9.7B | 2024 |
| Spain | $9.4B | 2024 |
| Canada | $6.7B | 2024 |
| United States | $5.9B | 2024 |
Figures are for the whole of HS chapter 07 (edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers). Source: UN Comtrade.
Every export begins with classification, because the code decides which customs records you can search, which buyers you can benchmark against and which duty line the importer will face. Fresh or chilled onions and shallots fall under subheading 070310, inside heading 0703, which also holds garlic (070320) and leeks and other alliaceous vegetables (070390). If your shipment mixes onions and garlic in one container, you cannot use one code for the whole invoice; each product needs its own line.
A point of scope before you read any statistics: the trade figures on this site are published at the level of the whole chapter 07, which is edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers. Onions are one part of that chapter, so a country’s chapter total tells you how big its vegetable trade is, not how many onions it buys. Treat chapter figures as a pointer to where vegetable trade is concentrated, then confirm onion volumes in shipment records.
Buyers and banks both ask for proof that you are a legitimate exporter before they discuss terms. The exact registrations differ by country, so check with your national trade authority, but the usual set is a business registration, a tax registration, an exporter identification code issued by the foreign trade authority, and a bank account able to receive foreign currency.
Fresh produce adds one more layer. Many exporting countries expect you to register with the body that supervises agricultural exports, and to source from farms or packhouses that it recognises. Ask early whether your packhouse must itself be registered, because a shipment from an unregistered facility can be refused a phytosanitary certificate however good the onions are.
The largest importers in the chapter 07 data are the United States at $16.5B, Germany at $8.8B, the United Kingdom at $5.2B, India at $5.1B, France at $4.8B and Canada at $4.1B. Those are the biggest vegetable buyers overall, and they are also the most demanding on residue limits, traceability and packaging. A new exporter with a single container a week is often better served by a mid-sized neighbouring market that buys onions regularly and tolerates plainer packing.
Use customs shipment records to move from a country name to a shortlist of companies. Each record can show the consignee, the code, the quantity, the declared value and the origin, so you can see who buys onions, in what size of lot, and from which competing origins. Pair that with the free marketplace on this site to post your offer where importers already browse. Note that the leading exporters in the same chapter are China at $12.3B, Mexico at $10.7B, the Netherlands at $9.7B, Spain at $9.4B, Canada at $6.7B and the United States at $5.9B, so on any lane you will be competing with an origin that may sit much closer to the buyer than you do.
Onions are sold by colour, size and storage quality, and buyers state all three in the enquiry. Red, yellow and white types are not interchangeable, and a buyer who asks for a firm, well-dried bulb with dry outer skins is telling you the onions must be cured before packing. Undercured bulbs sweat in a closed container and rot from the neck, which is the most common cause of a claim on this product.
Agree a written specification before you quote: variety and colour, size range measured by diameter, maximum tolerance for sprouting, doubles, splits and damaged bulbs, and the dryness of the outer skins. Grade in the packhouse, not at the port, and keep a retained sample from every lot so you can answer a complaint with evidence.
Onions need ventilation, so they usually travel in open-weave mesh or ventilated bags and, in some lanes, in cartons with vent holes. A tight plastic bag suits a retail pack for a supermarket but not a bulk export lot. Check with the buyer whether they want printed bags, a private label or plain sacks, and whether the pallets must be heat-treated or otherwise certified for the destination.
Build your price from the field upward: purchase cost, curing and shrinkage loss, grading rejects, packing material, inland transport, port handling and the freight leg. Then choose the Incoterm you will actually offer. Free on board leaves the ocean freight and its delay risk with the buyer, while cost, insurance and freight makes you responsible for booking space and for delivering a sound lot to the port of discharge. Shrinkage is the line new exporters forget, so allow for weight lost between the farm gate and the loading dock.
A standard onion shipment needs a commercial invoice, a packing list, a bill of lading or airway bill and a certificate of origin where the importer wants preferential treatment. As a fresh plant product it also normally needs a phytosanitary certificate issued by the plant-protection authority after inspection; confirm the current rules and any extra declarations with that authority and with the importer, because destinations set their own conditions.
For payment, a first sale to a new buyer is usually safer on a letter of credit or a substantial advance, while a repeat buyer may accept open account. Because fresh onions cannot wait, agree how a quality dispute will be settled before loading: who inspects on arrival, against which specification, and within how many days a claim must be filed.
Once the lot is packed the clock is running. Book the container or air space before harvest grading finishes, choose a reefer or a well-ventilated dry container as the buyer and the transit time require, and check that the shipping line accepts the cargo on the sailing you want. Plan the inland leg so that the container is loaded and gated in as close to cut-off as the port allows, because every idle day in a yard is a day of respiration inside the bag.
After departure, send the documents to the buyer or the bank as agreed, record the container number, and follow the vessel. When the goods arrive, ask for a short inspection note. That note, plus your retained sample, is what protects you if the buyer says the onions arrived soft.
Fresh or chilled onions and shallots are classified under subheading 070310, part of heading 0703. Garlic, leeks and other alliaceous vegetables have their own subheadings in the same heading, so mixed loads need separate invoice lines.
Fresh onions are a plant product, so a phytosanitary certificate from the plant-protection authority is usually required. Rules and additional declarations differ by destination, so confirm the current requirement with the authority and the importer before you pack.
Search customs shipment records for the onion code to see consignees, quantities and origins, then contact importers directly. You can also list your offer on the free marketplace on this site so that importers searching for onions can reach you.
The usual causes are undercured bulbs that rot in transit, sprouting, size outside the agreed range, and missing or wrong certificates. A written specification, packhouse grading and a retained sample per lot reduce most of these disputes.
No. The figures cover the whole of chapter 07, edible vegetables and certain roots and tubers, so onions are only part of each total. Use the figures to find large vegetable markets, then check shipment records for onion-specific volumes.
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