Future onion prices are uncertain as the country-wide heat wave has continued to impact the individual sizes of fresh produce. “The market on bigger-sized stuff over the past week has gotten better price wise,” said Josh Schmaren, who handles the onion trade at Heartland Produce, a wholesale distributor in Kenosha, Wisconsin. “I haven’t had problems really getting it, but the pricing has been firmer.”
Schmaren deals with distributors that are mostly located in the western portion of the United States.
“They were talking a couple of months ago about it when we had that big heat wave and drought across the whole country, that they kind of just stopped growing and stunted the growth,” he said. “Right now, I think the beginning of the crop, the sizing is smaller. Not to say it won’t change or get better, but right now what they’re saying is that the jumbo, colossal and bigger sizing is not as abundant. There’s plenty of smaller sized stuff, though.”
He says that even though prices of larger onions are beginning to rise, he remains unsure if the pricing will hold or for how long due to the multiple growing areas going at the same time.
“They’re not crazy out of whack right now, at least as of yet when it comes to pricing” he said. “I haven’t had issues getting product. Normally when stuff gets really tight I have to really search and fight to get product. There’s so many areas that are starting that I just think even if there is less supply, you have so many options of where to pull from. We will see what happens though.”
For more information, contact
Josh Schmaren
Heartland Produce
Tel: 1-262-653-1000
Email: jschmaren@heartlandproduce.com
www.heartlandproduce.com