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Onion Market Update 6/10/2025
By John Harris
We have made it nearly halfway through 2025 already. Wow, time flies when you’re having fun. Wait, I don’t think we have had a lot of fun this year… The movement of daily shipments has increased over the last week, averaging around 415 truckloads per day for the previous week.
Imperial, Calif. is almost complete. That deal goes quickly. Central California is expected to start with some volume in about 10 days. Texas is complete, but there are a significant amount of Mexican onions crossing daily in the Rio Grande Valley. New Mexico is in full production with its onion crop, with a substantial number of Mexican onions also being sold there. As hard as it is to believe, there are still 60-70 loads a day coming out of Washington as well.
The quality of the onions coming out of New Mexico right now, whether Mexican or US-grown, has been fantastic. Prices have risen slightly in New Mexico, but remain extremely depressed compared to a normal market for this time of year. Whites have at least reached a point that is at or slightly above the cost of production, serving as one lone bright spot.
If the Mexican onions slow over the next several weeks, there is some hope that this market could improve for yellows and reds between now and late July, before the early day onion harvest kicks off again in Washington and Idaho-Eastern Oregon. I wish I had a better outlook for what is to come over the next couple of months, but I don’t see many reasons to be particularly optimistic that we will emerge from the rut we have been in. Our entire industry has a need and desire for this market to improve, given the numerous costs associated with doing business these days. However, the fact is that there is more supply, driven by pressure from Mexico, than what we have in daily demand.
I’ll update in a couple of weeks when Central Calif. has kicked off their season. As always, I appreciate any feedback and train-of-thought comments. There are a lot of perspectives and knowledge out there that I always like to hear about, so that I am more informed on the things I don’t know. Have a great week.
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.
