|
Click to listen to this article
|
Onion Market Update January 22, 2024
By John Harris
Every time I have updated the last few times, I have had hope and optimism for some kind of supply and demand relief. That relief is right around the corner from something in my early morning dreams at this point. From all that I am observing and learning and witnessing, we are just around the corner from the open market witnessing product simply being out and unavailable.
White onions are just about to that point. Just about any volume that is left is going towards contracts only. There is a handful of product left for the open market, but it is down to mainly pallet volume only and extremely sparse. Medium reds are nearly in the same boat as of the last 10 days as well, it seems. As far fetched as it seems, storage crop is just around the corner from being in the same situation with yellow onions as well. Open market purchasing is going to become extremely limited as we go into February in the Northeast and the reliance on product from Mexico is going to be as high as we have seen it in well over a decade.
Pricing has slowly increased on just about every size and color so far in 2024. Reds have remained the most consistent item, with jumbo reds seemingly the most available item on the open, day-to-day market. I wouldn’t count on reds to remain so steady the deeper we get into 2024. Daily shipments are still in the high 300s and low 400s going into late January, continuing to drain what storage supplies remain. Supplies are being depleted at a record pace, putting the upcoming open market almost exclusively on the Mexican and Texas shoulders to carry.
The coming weeks and months will undoubtedly have trickle-down effects that will carry weight on the market and supply chain throughout the summer. Storage supplies that are typically in play in May and June will be gone completely. Increased demand out of California and New Mexico this summer is a certainty at this point, which nearly guarantees an above-average market for nearly the first three quarters of 2024. The next opportunity we have for market reset and returning to normal conditions looks to me like mid-August when next year’s storage crop season begins again. Speculation is always a little cloudy, but the current outlook for what’s ahead is pretty clear. A quick reminder that a good relationship with your suppliers in the coming months will be a lynchpin in successfully getting through the upcoming weeks and months. I feel like the upcoming market conditions over the next several months will be some of the most difficult and volatile that most of us have ever seen.
As always, your comments and opinions are most welcome. Please don’t be afraid to reach out to me with what your thoughts and expectations are for the next several months.
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.
