Senegalese government moves ahead with onion sector support measures
23 February 2014
At the end of 2013, the Senegalese onion industry’s inter-professional organisation announced the allocation of 9,956 tonnes of onion import quotas to 15 importers. This followed discussions at a meeting of the market regulation agency: 46 organisations participated, including producers, importers, retail traders and consumers’ representatives. These were the only quotas to be allocated before the freezing of imports from February 2014 and the arrival of the first harvest in the middle of February.
According to the national press, producers expressed their satisfaction with this measure, while importers warned against cumbersome import procedures at the harbour that could delay the release of the import quota, thereby causing disturbances on the local market during the harvest period.
In November, the government confirmed its willingness to implement a range of measures to support the onion industry, including:
- maintaining a managed import regime when local production is available;
- consolidating storage infrastructure and bulk transport programmes;
- raising awareness of index-based insurance schemes;
- reaching agreement on a price charter acceptable to both producers and consumers;
- enabling the development of processing onions into onion powder;
- reforming import declarations for food products, stipulating a date of validity and banning the reassignment of declarations to another party;
- supporting firms pursuing export opportunities in Mauritania and Guinea following a recent trade mission.
Dutch onion exporters, meanwhile, have expressed concern over the basis for implementation of the Senegalese government’s seasonal ban on onion imports from 1 February 2014. They maintain that it is unclear whether the ban will apply to consignments already contracted and on the high seas before the 1 February introduction of the ban. They also consider that, with sales of onions in alternative markets currently slow, the impact of the Senegalese ban could be felt more widely, particularly if exports to Mauritania and Côte d’Ivoire are also affected.
Editorial comment
Senegalese markets have two annual periods of abundance in the onion sector: from March to May, with onions from Niayes as well as other producing regions, and from July to September, at the time of the second harvest in most of the Niayes region. Traditionally, onion imports started in July and continued until the end of the first quarter of the following year. During these two peak periods, the simultaneous presence of imported and locally produced onions generally leads to a sharp drop in domestic onion prices.
It is for this reason that the government uses seasonal import restrictions, accompanied in recent years with intensified stakeholder dialogues to try to promote greater self-sufficiency in the sector. The use of seasonal import restrictions to manage imports, with a view to creating commercial space for increased domestic production, could potentially fall foul of EPA provisions, as the EC has sought to include provisions containing a “prohibition of quantitative restrictions” across a range of interim EPAs.
The EC has adopted this policy position in the light of analysis in 2007 from EU agro-food exporters that such quantitative restrictions were the principal obstacle to the further expansion of EU agro-food sector exports rather than tariffs per se. It is worth noting that the EU itself uses import licences and variable import levies to manage trade in sensitive agricultural products in order to maintain the commercial space for domestic agricultural production (e.g. not only in the onion sector, but also in major sectors such as sugar and rice).
It is unclear whether the issue of the use of seasonal import restrictions as part of national policies to strengthen the functioning of domestic agricultural supply chains has been fully addressed in the West Africa–EU EPA negotiations recently finalised at official level.
