Featured image: King City, CA onions ready for harvest. Photo courtesy of Jose Cardona with Rio Farms.
MARKET
Idaho-E. Oregon
Marc Bybee with Eagle Eye Produce in Nyssa, OR, provided his company’s update on September 18. “Demand is probably a little slower this week but that may largely be a result of us managing inventories while we are drying out from a little bit of rain early this week,” Marc said, “It’s nothing alarming. Our regular business remains…regular. All sizes and colors seem to be moving as we would anticipate. Larger onions are available and moving well. Smaller onions are available and moving well. Again, from a packing perspective the current challenge for me is only having a minimal inventory in storage to select from. So far, we are making it work here and between our EEP warehouses.” Marc continued to comment on the market saying, “The market seems fairly stable to me. I see no reason for that to change as we are finding yields to be normal, to average, to occasionally well below average. Overall shipments are ahead of recent years so hopefully we can maintain stable marketing across all regions.” And he said, “We are 10-14 days behind on putting away the storage crop in my opinion. We hope to start on Monday the 23rd. Hopefully, Mother Nature stays happy and sends us a long Fall.”
Dwayne Fisher with Tamura Farms in Wilder, ID, and Champion Produce in Parma, ID, reported on September 18. “At the moment Mother Nature has us sidelined from the fields,” Dwayne said. “Rain the beginning of the week stopped lifting, harvesting, and all progression on those fronts. We are hoping to be dried out enough by this weekend to start lifting or re-lifting again, depending on if the roots have reattached.” He continued, “The market is steady and we should see everything hold firm as we complete harvest in the next few weeks. Reds seem to be poised to make some jumps very soon. Quality has been outstanding and our skin retention now with the rain should be fantastic. Most facilities only have a few lots in, at the moment, and those have been strong fields in terms of size, so mediums are a tight commodity.” And he said, “We have seen a good dollar or more strength there as well. Our farms and growers are happy to just trickle things out. The market needs to be much stronger in terms of profits for more onions to be released to be packed.”
Colorado Western Slope:
David DeBerry with Southwest Onion Growers in McAllen, TX, told us on Sept. 18 his Western Colorado growers have all three colors in all sizes now. “The weather has been really good. and it’s starting that seasonal change to cooler temperatures and shorter days,” David said. He added that the Delta shed is “still packing fresh but will start filling storages late this week.” David said the market is “steady in Colorado thus far, and there is not really any pressure.” He noted, “Transportation is very smooth, but Mondays have a lot of late ETAs to load. The rest of the week we generally have trucks backed in all day from a.m. forward.” Our thanks to David for the great shot of grower Mike Ahlberg with Ahlberg Farms in Delta, CO.
Colorado Western Slope/Corinne, UT:
Chuck Hill with The Onion House in Weslaco, TX, said on Sept. 18 that his Colorado grower is moving light volume now out of the Olathe shed. “Quality is outstanding,” Chuck said. Recent rains slowed the start a bit, and Chuck said they expect movement to increase by the end of the week. Utah is progressing nicely, and that shipping season is expected to start Oct. 5-10. Our thanks to Chuck for the photo of beautiful Colorado reds.
Washington/Colorado/Kansas:
Hayden Bingham with L&M Cos. in Raleigh, NC, told us on September 18, “We’ve been shipping out of Rocky Ford, CO and Ulysses, KS for about two weeks now,” he said. “Yellows and whites are coming from those regions and next week we will be adding reds. All is going really well with our Warden, WA program. We’re shipping all three colors and quality is great! Demand is steady and buyers seem to be looking for the larger sized onions this week and they are becoming more readily available.” On the market, Hayden said, “The market is status quo and has been about the same for the last couple of weeks. Of course, we would like it to be a little higher, but it is steady.” On transportation, Hayden said, “Freight if about the same. Rates are good out of Colorado and Kansas is pretty good going south and it seems to have moved up just a bit over the last couple of weeks out of the Northwest.”
Bronx, NY:
Lou Getzelman with Canyon Sales Co. on the Hunts Point Market told us on September 18, “Been rather a slow week across multiple items on the terminal,” Lou said. “Prices in the onion market have been fairly steady on jumbo and even medium yellows. However, we have seen jumbo reds start to feel some pressure, and whites we’re seeing some continued pressure. There are a few more colossal yellows around this week than in weeks past, finally starting to see some size out West so there are big onions available if you’re looking this week.” He continued, “ We’re shipping onions from California, Idaho, WA, NY, Kansas, and Canada this week, all with good quality that keeps getting better and better. Demand has remained pretty steady for this time of year, it’s certainly not the busiest but we’re not at a standstill. Next week we expect to see more supply come on line out of Idaho.” On transportation, Lou said, “Transportation has been easy, rates are even down a touch this week and there are plenty of flats available coming back East.”
King City, CA
Jose Cardona with Rio Farms provided a King City, CA update on September 18. “We are harvesting in our final growing region, King City, California in the Salinas Valley,” Jose said. “Quality is great, size has been good. Harvest will wrap up by mid-November. We are also beginning to prepare to plant for our 2025 crop in Brawley, California, and will begin in October.” Many thanks to Jose for this week’s featured photo.