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Onion Market Update 05/01/2024
By John Harris
Happy May Day. Georgia and Southern California are out of the gate, and Texas and Mexican onions are rounding 3rd base and rapidly headed to the finish line. The red market is still at historic high marketing levels but is turning the corner this week, with a little more volume coming online daily. The white and yellow markets have returned to pretty normal marketing levels for this time of year. Quality out of Texas and Mexico were some of the best I can remember, with very few issues from start to finish.
California should be full steam with all colors and sizes by the end of the week. The California crop looks to be a larger profile, and medium yellows might get a bit tight. Georgia is in the same situation, with medium sizes in both reds and yellows being tight out of the gate.
The red market will come down to earth eventually (probably over the next 2 weeks), and supplies will be available. The expectation is that the market will continue to be strong for the next several months to come. Yellows and whites are in a good place and will have good movement and pricing for the month of May. White prices will likely see an opportunity to increase as Texas and Mexico wrap up and New Mexico comes on board at the end of May. We are in a fresh crop deal now, and Mother Nature is in charge.
Weather can quickly change things, so it’s never a good idea to get overly confident about markets and quality this time of year with so many influencing outside factors out of the growers’ control. Markets are week to week, and all that goes along with it.
We’ll be fully involved in California in two weeks and right around the corner from New Mexico on my next update. I hope everyone enjoys our last month of springtime weather and is ready for a great summer. As always, I appreciate all of your comments. I’ll be back again in two weeks with another update.
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.
