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Onion Market Update December 26, 2023
By John Harris
Merry Christmas and almost Happy 2024. Another year has gone by and what a way to go out. The month of December has been a wild one for certain.
We have a couple of short weeks in front of us, and chances are pretty good that things are going to remain complicated as we bring in the New Year. There are only 3 packing days this week for most sheds and only 4 packing days next week. With supplies already hard to come by, it feels like the noose around our necks can’t get much tighter, but I don’t see much relief in store until at least the 3rd week of January.
I don’t see the market going down in January at all, but I am expecting supplies a little less difficult to get a hold of. Holiday demand will be behind us and the end of January and into February are always a little slower paced. Diets are in full swing and credit card bills show up from Christmas, prompting much of middle-American to tighten their bootstraps for a time, which also helps slow things down a bit.
Mexico will also be out of the way and turn from a customer to an exporter as we near the end of January, this will have likely impact, not only on markets, but also on daily availability of supplies. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the monthly National Onion Association (NOA) stocks on hand report next week. We went through some serious volume in December and what is left will have to get us through March and into April. The stocks on hand will be more than manageable and should support a favorable market for the growers for the rest of the storage crop season.
Have a safe and prosperous New Year. I’ll report again in a couple weeks.
Editors Note: John Harris is the president and founder of Paradigm Fresh and Colorado Cold Connect in Fort Morgan, Colorado. He can be reached at John@paradigmfresh.com.
