Feature Image: New York crop progress, courtesy of Rick Minkus
MARKET
Central Valley California:
Dwayne Fisher with Champion Produce Sales in Parma, ID, reported the Central Valley, saying, “Demand exceeds supply this week, no question. Onions in Five Points have had a lot thrown at them this summer. Rain, hail, and now extreme heat. All things considered, they are doing well, and the price is strong and trending up. We will be shipping at Telesis Onion until we start back up sometime in August back in Idaho. Looks like this deal remains very strong.” View California onions photos sent in by Dwayne below.
Northern Colorado:
John Harris with Paradigm Fresh sent his first report on Monday, noting, “We begin another week with a strong onion market.” At that time, he said, “New Mexico should finally begin to hit on all cylinders this week and produce some volume.” That turned out not to be the case. John also said early in the week, “California has supplies, but all of the rains have created quality issues in the form of black mold. We will be steering clear of California this year, but that is just my preference. I do have a few deals on reds out of Southern Cal that I am confident on quality as we have them on the floor here in Fort Morgan. Overwinter yellows are two weeks out in Washington, and we hear good reports on that small crop this year.” On Wednesday John updated his report with news out of New Mexico. “What wild week. Poor quality and few supplies along with rain in New Mexico on Monday have really taken their toll. There is just nothing available until the middle of next week right now.” He continued, “Growers are just now getting back into the fields today or tomorrow and by the time this stuff is clipped, dried and ready to run it will be Saturday or Monday. Right now everyone is just doing their very best to cover order that we already on the books.” The result, John said, is, “The market is extremely strong, and there are no deals anywhere. This is a great year to show the major importance of putting a contract program in place. It’s not about securing cheap product and all about simply securing consistent volume.”
Vidalia:
Cliff Riner with G&R Farms in Glennville told us on June 12 that Georgia had been getting rain recently, “which we needed.” He said G&R wrapped up its harvest on May 15 and has begun shipping out of storage. “Our aim is to go through August if possible,” Cliff said of inventory, adding that the season might not go quite that long. “We’re comfortable that we can go through mid-August, and we’ll see how demand is for July 4.” Right now, he said, “Demand is good, and movement is good.” Quality has also been very good, and Cliff said the earlier part of the crop actually came in with a somewhat larger size profile. An exceptionally warm April followed, but he said, “Overall we’ve seen real good size and very good quality.”
New York:
This week Rick Minkus with Minkus Family Farms in New Hampton is holding down the fort at the office while the sales team is manning a booth at United Fresh in Chicago. “Dylan and Rod are promoting us at United Fresh while I cover things here at home,” Rick said on June 12. “They say the weather has been pretty good for them. On the home front, the market seems to be going up due to tight supplies. No one area is really going full steam yet. We are pretty lucky. We have really good suppliers that do a good job for us, and so we have the availability of California onions across the board in all colors and sizes.”
Broker’s Perspective:
Rick Greener with Greener Produce in Ketchum, ID, said on June12 that he is currently selling onions out of Central California. “Quality has been good,” he told us. “We are shipping all colors mostly in mixer volumes with some straight loads of large reds and large yellows. Reports are that New Mexico has had one to two inches of rain recently, and the orders are stacking up – so some sheds are looking to California to cover the shipments. This has had a positive effect on the market, and we are seeing the market strengthen. I will say there is a lack of smaller onions across the board in all colors. The bottom line is that supplies are tight right now. Freight looks to be trending upward too.”
CROP
Northern Colorado:
Ryan Fagerberg with Fagerberg Farms/Fagerberg Produce in Eaton said on June 12, “Thus far, the weather has been cooperative which has led to good onion stands. This area has an abundance of water due to above average snowpack. Given these two things, we are optimistic this will be a great year.”
New York:
Rick Minkus with Minkus Family Farms in New Hampton sent us beautiful photos of their crop this week. “So far so good,” he said. “We’re happy that we were able to get the crop in the ground in a timely manner, and we’ve had pretty decent weather and good growing conditions.” As you can see from the photos the crop Rick sent, the crop looks beautiful. View the great crop photos sent in by Rick below.
Idaho
Dwayne Fisher with Champion Produce Sales in Parma, ID sent us the latest in their Tamura farm crop progress in Idaho.
