Organic Onions in Good Supply

As a staple item that regularly appears on most shopping lists, onions aren’t a prime candidate for big retail promotions, but there are now opportunities to promote organic onions that should last well into spring.

“There is a good supply of organic onions right now, and we expect that to be the case through the transition,” said Jarod Hunting of Earl's Organic Produce, located on the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market.

Jarod Hunting, Produce Buyer, Earl's Organic Produce

The company’s onion buyer was speaking of the transition from the storage crop to the new fresh crop of organic onions, which will be harvested in the California desert beginning in late April. “Right now we are pulling storage onions from a few different sources in the Pacific Northwest and Nevada,” he said.

The current price and supply situation on organic onions, Hunting said, is very favorable—much better than a year ago. Wildfires in the Northwest in 2021 led to a short 2022 storage crop, with many shippers having 30-40 percent fewer onions than normal. “This year we are expecting a seamless transition from the storage to the desert in mid-April,” he said.

“There is a good supply of organic onions right now, and we expect that to be the case through the transition." - Jared Hunting

And the quality of the onions coming out of storage is top-notch, according to organic onion shippers. “The quality has been really, really fantastic,” Hunting said. “We’ve had stable pricing with very little volatility. That allows us to promote organic onions to our customer list (mostly local retailers), allowing them the opportunity of offering good [retail] pricing for their customers.”

Hunting did say that while there are good volumes of organic yellows as well as reds and whites, there are tighter supplies on both organic cipollini onions and shallots.

Jessica Peri, retail sales manager of Peri & Sons Farms in Yerington, NV, agreed that the organic onion situation is good right now. “There is not much to report,” she said. “We are still shipping out of storage with good supplies and good quality.”

Jessica Peri, Retail Sales Manager, Peri & Sons Farms

The Imperial Valley district is the first area in the West to have new crop onions, she said, with a typical start date of late April. The desert area, Peri said, has had a couple of weeks of unseasonably cold weather—as has the rest of California—which could delay the start of the season and potentially create a gap in some organic onion categories.

Supplies of organic yellows are very good, she said, and do offer an opportunity for retail promotion. “There are not a lot of organic whites, but the demand is pretty low,” Peri said. “There is a decent amount of organic reds available.”

Though storage and fresh onions from California dominate the organic category from winter through spring, there will be some organic fresh onions available from Mexico and Texas in mid-to-late March through April.

Don Ed Holmes, owner of The Onion House in Weslaco, Texas, said his firm does have access to organic onions this year from a grower south of the border. “We are working with a grower in Mexico,” he said. “We will have some organics in a couple of weeks, and they should last through April.”

Don Ed Holmes, Owner, The Onion House

One of the larger organic operations in Texas's Rio Grande Valley is South Tex Organics in Mission. Russon Holbrook, part owner and senior vice president of the company, said there are not a lot of organic onion growers in Texas, but the acreage is increasing. He estimated that of the 7,200 acres planted in onions for this season about five percent are devoted to organics. “Judging by what we have and what I have seen and heard, I’d say about 350-450 acres have been planted this year,” Holbrook said.

South Tex Organics sells compost to growers in the area to use on their organic production, and that business is on the rise, Holbrook said, pointing to increased acreage of organic onions and other organic crops in the region.

Russon Holbrook, Part Owner and Senior Vice President, South Tex Organics

“We expect to start harvesting our organic onions the third week of March and should have good supplies of sweet yellows and reds through April as long as the growing conditions help us out,” he said. “We are battling some issues right now.”

With the temperature in South Texas expected to reach 100 degrees earlier this week, Holbrook said the heat will keep mold issues at a minimum but will make it more difficult for the onions to get the size they need.

“Judging by what we have and what I have seen and heard, I’d say about 350-450 acres have been planted this year.” - Russon Holbrook

Holbrook is bullish about the marketing opportunities for his company's organic onions once they're harvested. “We have a good clientele that’s ready to take our onions when they are ready,” he said, noting that the market is typically pretty solid for their organic supplies.