Onion harvest in New Mexico will start in full next week. “A few people have begun but the majority of the crop will start next week,” says Michael Davis of Tex-Mex Sales LLC, noting that harvest from the region will continue through August.

New Mexico, along with the central San Joaquin Valley region, are starting just as some other regions are finishing including Texas and Idaho, though some production is still available in Washington. Meanwhile supply from the Imperial Valley still has a few weeks.

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The timing of the New Mexico season is as per usual–good because planting earlier runs the risk of increased number two sized onions as well as quality issues, all of which can increase the cull rate to around 10-15 percent. “On a bad market, that’s a lot,” says Davis.

The early look at the season looks to be average and this is following a sizable crop from south Texas. “It’s not overly big. However the crop that we’re looking at is not going to harvest for another week or 10 days. In an onion’s life, the last week to 10 days is when an onion can grow quite a lot,” says Davis.

Looking back on growing conditions
While growing conditions in the region have been good, albeit cool, growers do remember that in mid-March, there was a hot spell of about a week and that’s leading growers to wonder if those temperatures shocked the onions. “We’ll see how the crop finishes in June. Size-wise, the early stuff from New Mexico has got great size,” he adds.

Acreage also seems to have stayed similar to last year. “After last year, my guess is that acreage would be down–it was probably the worst onion year in 10-15 years and everybody lived through lower pricing than they had seen in awhile,” says Davis, adding that big onion growing regions such as Chihuahua, Mexico are believed to be down on acreage this season.

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As for demand, summer tends to see good demand for onions–particularly as it leads into events such as the 4th of July. After that, it slows down somewhat.

All of this is leaving growers to wonder where pricing is headed. After all, prices were depressed last summer through fall and that was challenging leading into the spring. That said, in early April, rains and Idaho finishing shipping onions pushed the market up by $8-$10 within a week though those prices came off the following two weeks.

For more information:
Michael Davis
Tex-Mex Sales
Tel: +1 (956) 969-1003
[email protected]
https://www.texmexsales.com/