Onions have begun transitioning to new sourcing regions for the season. "California and New Mexico have just finished up and we are in full swing with production," says John Harris of Paradigm Fresh. "Storage crop onions in Washington, Idaho and Eastern Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, New York, and Canada are all up and running."
That's leaving the overall supply of onions good on all sizes and colors given that acreage and yields in all the onion growing areas are fairly typical. In the past few weeks, white onions have been tighter on supply in the Northwest though that is shifting now. Meanwhile, Super and Colossal yellow onions are a little tighter, particularly in Washington. "Except for those two sizes, the supply is ample," says Harris.
This season, Washington began harvesting a little bit later by a few weeks. "However there's enough product out of California and New Mexico for a couple of weeks in August to get us through," says Harris, adding that onion quality is good. "That's part of the reason why white onions, which come from Washington, were tight."
Regional updates
Regionally, a small hail event in Idaho this year affected less than 1,000 acres though that shouldn't significantly impact the market. "We had some hot temperatures in Idaho, though most of those onions are grown on drip tape and they did well through the heat," Harris says. Canada is still making its way through its harvest, though it's likely better than last year when the country lost acreage due to torrential rains at harvest. "We're going to have a lot better global supply chain for onions this year compared to last year."
Meanwhile, the onion market has maintained pretty well. Sometimes in August, the markets can flounder a bit but reds and white onions are still very comparable for growers. "Yellows are hanging in there. Prices aren't great but they're not bad–we're still above the cost of production. The market overall is very steady," says Harris.
Last year at this time, red onion prices were elevated–though this year, pricing generally is stronger than this time last year. "The market got fairly sloppy on yellows in late September through October last year but there was a big market correction at about the end of November," says Harris.
Fall demand to pick up
As for onion demand, it is steady, even with the late August slower movement which is common in many commodities and that's expected to strengthen moving into fall. "Labor Day weekend had a decent push with some ads running," says Harris. With the good supply across the country, he anticipates demand to be spread out amongst the regions that can supply the most competitive delivered prices along with the highest quality. "When you're on the East Coast and New York and Michigan can supply in those areas via overnight delivery, sometimes that's easier than onions coming from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. However, if you need bigger sizes or white onions, you have to pull from those regions along with Colorado and Nevada," he adds.
In moving onions, transportation so far this season has been ample and the price per mile has been very consistent. "Finding trucks hasn't been much of a challenge though that can change a bit with cherry and apple season out of Washington and potato production going as well," says Harris. "Though in the last couple of years, we've had a good supply of trucks."
For more information:
John Harris
Paradigm Fresh
Tel: +1 (970) 775.2049
[email protected]
www.paradigmfresh.com