The Texas onion season had an early, but rough start in March. It has since made up for that with a strong push from the last week of March through most of April.
High disease pressure from wet crops and pests, including thrips, caused the Rio Grande Valley onion season to have a rocky start, according to The Packer.
This year’s harvest started around March 5, compared to a normal April start.
Don Ed Holmes, owner of The Onion House in Weslaco, told The Packer Texas onions were getting around $5.50-$8 for 50-pound bags of jumbo yellow onions early in the season.
Homes said after the rains stopped, growers were quick to get shipments out, but these were poor quality onions that weren’t cured or cleaned up enough.
Holmes noted the Texas onion crop was mostly lost in 2015 after it rained for about 40 days. Out of 600 acres, only about 70 were harvested.
The 2017 onion market bounced back with one of the best Easter periods Holmes had ever seen from the last week of March through the first three weeks of April.
Holmes said prices rebounded to $10-$12 at the end of the season.
Holmes noted Texas will typically ship around 350-400 loads of 800 bags (40,000 pounds) each day. He saw shipments of 480-525 loads during this Easter boom.
“We kept waiting for the bottom to fall out, but it never fell and, actually, it went up,” Holmes said.
He said Texas onions ended up with a middle-of-the-pack season with average pricing.