Texas onion season heating up for The Onion House

A warm growing season has spurred the progress of Texas onions, says Don Ed Holmes, president of The Onion House, Weslaco, Texas.

With late February temperatures peaking about 15 degrees above average, onions were soaking up heat units with highs in the low 90s and nighttime temperatures in the low 70s. Texas onions were expected to be available by March 10 from some shippers, Holmes said. 

However, The Onion House had planned for a later start this season to create a buffer between Mexican onions and the start of the Texas deal. Holmes said the shipper could begin Texas onions by March 20-25, about a week earlier than normally expected.

“Onions are coming on with this with hot dry weather,” he said, adding that South Texas onion plants have not had to deal with much moisture or fog. “Onions are growing really well now."

The Onion House expects similar acreage to a year ago, Holmes said.

“I think the yields this year can probably be a little better than last year, so the volumes may be up a little bit,” he said. 

Ideal planting conditions during October last year created good stands for onion plants.

“We’re expecting some really good yields this year because of the perfect growing conditions that we've experienced so far,” he said.

The Onion House will have some organic onions available for buyers, sourced from a Mexican grower, he said.

Holmes noted that season-to-date shipments of Mexican onions are running well ahead of last season. Through late February, season-to-date shipments of Mexican onions totaled 2,283 (40,000-pound) loads, up from 1,267 loads at the same time the previous year. 

“I think the yield on the back end of the Mexican crop is going to be off a little bit,” Holmes said, noting that the lack of water in some fields limited onion sizing.

With Idaho-Eastern Oregon onion volume fading in March, Holmes said Texas onions should be set up for a good April.

The Onion House expects to have Texas onions from late March through mid-May. After that, The Onion House will have onions from Chihuahua, Mexico, in May through most of June.

“We’ll have onions shipping out of this Texas location all the way into June,” he said.

In April, Holmes said The Onion House will be featuring high desert Mexican white onions in the Laguna Diamond label.

“We’ll use those [white onions] on mixer loads to go along with our yellows and reds out of Texas here, and that should be a big added plus for customers that we work with," he said.

Retail promotions of Texas sweet onions are expected strong this season, and perhaps could be enhanced by reports of a smaller Georgia onion crop this year, he said. 

South Texas truck availability is somewhat better than a year ago, with more trucks looking for business than a year ago. At the same time, Holmes said conditions can change quickly with the start of the spring Mexican produce and seasonally increasing shipments of watermelon.

“We’re not going to count our blessings until we're finished, but it does appear at this point that there does seem to be more trucks around than there was a year ago,” he said.

Because of the tight labor market, shippers are trying to automate some processes. The Onion House is receiving its onions from Mexico already packed and palletized. Only limited use of mechanical harvest is found in Texas now, but Holmes said the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in slightly better labor availability, he said.