IEO:
Grant Kitamura at Murakami Produce in Ontario, OR, told us he’s seen steady movement and demand in the current market. Murakami will begin shipping its cold storage onions next week. “Cold storage inventory has excellent quality. Reds and yellows in all sizes will be available,” Grant said. Murakami expects to be finish shipping 2015 storage onions at the end of April.
WA:
John Vlahandreas at Wada Farms in Idaho Falls, ID, said the market is a bit slow this week and this always the case with post-Easter onion marketing. Wada will continue to pull onions from the Northwest through the end of April.
Mexico:
Don Ed Holmes of The Onion House in Weslaco, TX, said his company is on the back end of the Mexican deal and will be wrapping up the end of next week. “The market is in a bit of a post-Easter hangover now,” he said. “Things are a little sloppy, and two of the biggest Mexican growers are done. One of the biggest growers just got started last week, but I don’t see the big peak like we used to see in this deal. The crop is more spread out and much more orderly.” Don Ed said he expects the market to rebound as Mexico and IEO wind down.
Wada’s John Vlahandreas said supplies out of Mexico seem to be a little tight although adequate this week and the quality is good.
Mike Davis of Tex-Mex Sales in Weslaco said the market is a bit slow this week, typical for the week following Easter after very strong demand going into the holiday. “We are still shipping Mexican onions, but it doesn’t look like the Mexico supplies will be very heavy for the remainder of the season. Some shippers may be into shipping Mexico onions for the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Texas:
Mike Davis said Tex-Mex harvested its first field, and the quality looks excellent. “We will be shipping in earnest next week and expect to ship through the Middle of May,” he said.
Wada’s John Vlahandreas said Wada will start to move to Texas new crop next week, and the feedback from customers is that they are interested and ready for those onions to come in. “For a while this month, we will have a mixed market, selling onions from the Northwest, Texas and Mexico,” he said.
Don Ed Holmes of The Onion House said he’s shipping Texas onions, and the early part of the deal is good, with better sizing and yields than were first expected. “We had a nice rain 10 days ago, and it was just what the doctor ordered for the onions to size good.” He said the crop is smaller due reduced acreage resulting from Hurricane Patricia and other storms in October and November. “We will be through the first third of the crop this weekend,” he said.
