Where do Irish onions come from?

Tastes and times have changed since the humble brown onion was the only option in shops

Tina Nielsen

Thu Nov 05 2026 - 12:00 • 2 MIN READ

A combination of climate, cost and changing tastes means that the onions we consume in Ireland are increasingly likely to originate from the Netherlands or Spain. In 2024, 45,000 tonnes of onions were imported to the Republic. Ireland’s self-sufficiency in the allium sits below 30 per cent, with three producers accounting for the majority of onions used in the State, according to Teagasc.

Even though the climate here is suitable for growing onions, a big part of producing them involves drying and storage, and that poses a challenge – and a cost. After harvest in July and August, onions go into the storage process, which involves first drying the outer skin with forced air, followed by refrigerated storage.

Margin is also an issue: “I think the onion market is pretty volatile, and you need to know what you’re doing. You need high levels of investment in equipment and in storage,” says Dermot Callaghan, head of horticulture with Teagasc.

Growing onions, he adds, is not as easy as it may seem. “It’s not something [where] you, as a vegetable grower, would turn around and say, ‘Oh, next year I’m going to move into onions’. There’s a lot to know about growing onions in terms of making money from it, and there’s a lot of investment required.”

Storage facilities with a controlled atmosphere are crucial, and they are expensive to maintain. And business rates are a concern: in October, the High Court ruled that a Cork potato grower was liable to pay rates on storage facilities. The fear now is that the rates applied to storage will hit all growers.

A third factor when it comes to onion consumption in Ireland is more discerning palates.

“There used to be more growers when all we wanted was brown onions, but the consumer taste has evolved, and they’re buying Spanish onions, smaller onions and red onions,” says Emer Hall, senior manager of horticulture with Bord Bia. “My mother used to only cook brown onions; there was no other variety. Now people expect all varieties all year round.”

She notes, though, that climate dictates the varieties that can grow here, at least to an extent.

“We don’t really grow shallots, and we can’t grow what you’d call a Spanish onion, which is a very large mild onion,” says Hall.

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Despite all this, Callaghan notes that supermarket buyers have recently looked towards more local production, partly because supply lines have been tricky.

“Climate is among the drivers. In southern Europe, the availability is not the same as it was 10 years ago, and it may be a little bit less consistent. There can be shortages in that supply chain from time to time due to weather or logistics, and we’ve had a few shocks around Covid,” he says. “I think there’s more of a focus by supermarkets to build longer-term relationships for local supply in Ireland.”

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