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Onion Market Update July 10, 2024
By John Harris
July 10th. Where does the time go? It’s been a pretty bumpy road since the beginning of June.
We have seen the large yellow market in California selling for less than cost of production for going on a month now. New Mexico has managed to hold their price up slightly higher, but still also likely below cost of production. Medium yellows continue to be a premium over the larger sizes and have been a bit tight all summer in both California and New Mexico. It seems to be getting a little better, but planning ahead is the key to getting what you need for medium yellows. This low yellow market is a pretty big swing considering the high price levels we sustained for 6 months at near historic levels. On a positive note, the red and white markets have remained impressively strong all summer. The white market has been very steady all summer and quality has been generally very good. I would say that as of this week, I’ve sensed just a bit of weakness in the jumbo white market. It is still steady, but there have been more jumbo whites available for sale this week than pretty much all summer I believe. As far as reds go, there seems to be plenty of jumbo reds around and mediums are hit and miss day-to-day and shipper-to-shipper, but they are not a problem if booked a few days ahead of shipment dates.
California has been extremely hot in some of the growing regions and quality always becomes a concern with high heat. So far, the shippers are doing a great job managing it the best they can, putting out a quality product and sorting off #2’s as necessary. Considering the low prices that exist on #1 product, it’s really hats off to these shippers to continue to do the right job at the packing sheds. On another weather note, the Treasure Valley in Idaho/Eastern Oregon experienced a severe thunderstorm about 10 days ago which wiped out some acreage. I do not think that acreage lost is enough to have any major impacts on the 2024/2025 storage crop supplies. With that said, it always leaves a pit in your stomach for the growers that lost crops due to the storm. The expense of something like that is devastating and our hearts go out to those that suffered damage and loss.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and I’ll update again in a few weeks. My next update should include the beginning of harvest in Washington. As always, your comments and input are always appreciated. Have a nice weekend.
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.
