Supplies of organic onions are tight, prices are high and it looks to be staying that way for the near future.
Onions of course were one of the crops affected by the heat wave seen this past summer in the Pacific Northwest. “And from the beginning of the season, we’ve known on both conventional and organic that the market is really short. The extreme heat took a big hit on yields because the onions stopped growing with the heat,” says Kurt Jacobs of Bridges Organic Produce based in Portland, OR, noting though that onion quality is good. “It’s interesting with storage crops. Product goes into storage and you have several months to sell all of this product but you know going in that overall yields are down and the markets are going to be short. Yet, you don’t feel the effects of it until the latter months of the season when supplies start dwindling and that’s where we’re at now.”
Kurt Jacobs (left) says that supplies of organic yellow and sweet onions are still decent.
This means that supplies of organic white onions have been out for a few months now and organic red onions will likely finish up this week. “We’d normally hope to go into April. The desert starts in the second or third week of April and we like to get close to that transition,” says Jacobs, adding that supplies of yellows and sweet onions are still decent.
Looking for onions
Meanwhile even with a slow February for sales, which helped spread supplies out, Jacobs notes there are indicators of the tight supplies. “You can always tell when you have people calling you that don’t normally call looking for onions. Throughout the season I’ve had calls from people who would never call,” he says.
And at the same time, organic demand in general for onions continues increasing. “And onion is the one ingredient that’s in every recipe. Organic onion demand is in retail and as people have shifted away from restaurants, they’re shopping for more at their organic retailer,” he says.
All of this means pricing is, says Jacobs, the strongest he’s ever seen with organic red onions into record pricing levels and organic white onions close to record pricing. “I don’t think prices will settle back down until late summer or early fall and that’s if we have beautiful growing conditions,” he says, noting some relief is coming from the Mexican season starting and soon, the desert crop. “I do anticipate increased acreage being planted this fall because we’re short now. So if we have a bumper crop, then we could see coming down the other side. But right now, pricing isn’t changing anytime soon.”
For more information:
Sydney Fairchild
Bridges Produce
Tel: +1 (503) 235-7333
sydney@bridgesproduce.com
www.bridgesproduce.com