The onion market is seeing fresh supply come on. In California, harvest will start this month and Western Onion will start running its crop next week. "People are saying the crop looks good and it's tracking to start at a normal time for us," says Gerry Valois of Western Onion, noting it starts on the early side of the California season. Most growers start the week of April 22nd.
California's production starts in the lower latitudes of the Imperial Valley and then moves up to the San Joaquin Valley. "Typically it's in Imperial the last few weeks of April and all of May and maybe a week into June. There may be a bit of overlap because Bakersfield starts in the last week of May or the first week of June and then Stockton, which is the farthest north, will go from the last week of June to the first week of August," says Valois.
Fresh crops are also coming from Mexico and South Texas.
Strong onion demand
This crop is arriving as the industry faces onion demand exceeding supply. "Onion demand in the U.S. is fairly static but what changes is production," Valois says. "We also had increased demand from Mexico which pushed the markets up a bit. It was welcomed given our markets were a bit soft and that pushed it from a $8-$10 to a $20 market." The most acute demand looks to be for red, then white, and then yellow onions.
He notes that right now the markets are somewhat static. The yellow market has come down a little bit out of the Northwest, likely due to clean-up efforts in the market. "Pricing going forward will be reasonably good to strong," Valois says. "I don't see any relief in the supplies coming until July to August when the Northwest starts again."
For more information:
Gerry Valois
Western Onion
Tel: +1 (805) 482 4441
gerry@westernonion.com
https://www.westernonion.com/