ONION SUPPLY POSSIBLY TIGHT THROUGH AUGUST

Peri & Sons is coming up very short this year on white, yellow and red onions and organic supply is extremely limited. Most of the country buys the same organic onions and prices are going up quickly. We are shifting our buying towards Anderson and potentially other labels including some Mexican Onions as we maneuver the gap through to fresh crop in May out of El Centro, California. Mexico is feeling the demand and not much is available with major price increases effective immediately. Onions from Anderson will give a bit of a relief, however there is no stability in onions, and we will see price and volume fluctuations for the next 1-2 weeks.

Peri & Sons will also soon be out of shallots with Coke and Anderson helping to bridge the gap until fresh crop starts up again in May.

In the News: Excerpt from FreshPlaza.com

There are several factors contributing to this current state of supply, starting with Hurricane Hilary in late August which affected a number of Baja Mexico’s vegetable crops including onions. They were either severely damaged or destroyed entirely. That meant that the supply that should have been growing and ready to supply the domestic Mexican market was not available. So where does that leave the supply? It’s one thing to have the white supply short but at this point it’s become almost non-existent. Prices are near historic highs with nearly zero availability. The next supply of white onions will be Mexican product. Typically, that happens around Feb. 5, though this year, cooler weather may delay that by a week. Looking ahead, it’s believed there will be stress on the onion market until the end of summer. While typically storage supply runs until April-May when Southern California starts its onion production in the third week of April, there won’t be storage supply there and that will put a lot more pressure on that deal. Read the full article here.