“In my twenty years at the sales floor it’s the shortest amount of onions I’ve observed.” According to John Harris of Paradigm Fresh describes the present condition of supply for onions. “Except the jumbo red onions, from the daily supply I’d estimate less than 10 % of the supply is available on the available on the market.”

There are a variety of factors that contribute to the present state of food supply. The first was the devastating hurricane Hilary in the latter part of August, which was a major factor in the destruction of many Baja Mexico’s vegetables which included onions. “They suffered severe damage or completely destroyed,” Harris says. Harris.

This meant that the quantity which was supposed to be growing and ready to meet the needs of the Mexican market Mexican market wasn’t available. “Mexico utilizes around 80 to 90 truckloads of U.S. top quality onions to supply supermarkets. The country had to enter the U.S. market to purchase onions, and they’re still purchasing to this day. The fever began to rise to a level at the beginning of December. It’s continuing,” Harris says.

In the next, more to northern Canada, Eastern Canada had ample rains in the harvest that affected their crop, either ruining the crops or resulting in lower onion quality than they had hoped for. In addition, there was the storm-related rain Treasure Valley saw at the final week of August in the period of harvest. “They had a fair amount of rain. However, it was timing which caused some issues with quality as well as storability, which is why their shrink is higher than average,” adds Harris.

Short Peruvian sweets

There’s Peru where there was an exceptionally short harvest of sweet onions in the year therefore there’s a reason why the U.S. has been supplying sweet onions from the U.S. in lieu of Peruvian sweets during the majority portion of the year.

And where is the availability? “It’s an issue to find the supply of white in short supply, but it’s, with the exception of contracts, virtually impossible to find,” says Harris, and noting that prices are close to historical highs, with almost no available. “The next source of white onions will come from Mexican supply.” It usually happens in February. 5 but this year, the cooler temperatures could delay it by one few weeks.

Yellow onion supplies aren’t nearly that bad, but prices are within the upper teens. “However it’s a challenge to satisfy the demand. It’s not easy to go out and purchase all the goods you require like in the typical day. It’s possible to receive a few loads from one shipping company as well as a load or two from another one,” He declares. “That supply has decreased enough that they’re able to the capacity, but they must fulfill the contracts until the month of March as well as April.”

Medium-sized red onions work similarly. “It appeared that everybody was getting the same crop of reds that were heavier than the size of jumbo, so mediums are a bit scarce throughout the time,” Harris adds, noting the price is currently $12 FB for medium and large reds. “There is a decent supply of large reds however and prices for reds have been fairly steady and constant in the past 4 to 6 months.”

The current state of demand

For the demand for services, Harris describes it as something more like an “plead.” “It’s asking ‘Can you help me? or do you know of anything instead of normal day-to-day activities like seeking out what you’re looking for in exchange for a quote or making a decision on the price of delivery,” he says. “I don’t think pricing isn’t a factor but it’s definitely second in relation to supply. The pricing is extremely strong.”

In the future, there is a belief that there’s going to be a lot of stress in the onion industry through the summer. “I do not think we’re likely to return to normal marketing times until after the start of the season at the end of August” the expert says. Storage supply typically runs through April to May, which is when Southern California starts its onion production around the third week of April there’s no storage available at that time, and this will cause greater pressure on this arrangement.”

In the meantime, Canada as well as New York hold onions typically up to the end of June, Harris says they won’t have any supply and would probably be buyers that could put more stress on California as well as New Mexico supply. “All of these variables will continue growing on top of one the other until we reach the growing season that starts during August,” Harris says.

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John Harris

Paradigm New

Tel: +1 (970) 775.2049

John@paradigmfresh.com

www.paradigmfresh.com

Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies