Texas onion season set for big volume

Weather conditions and expanded acreage for the Texas onion crop are setting up for promotable volumes starting in late March, industry leaders say.

Expensive seeds and agrichemical inputs somewhat limited South Texas onion acreage a year ago, said Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association and manager of the South Texas Onion Committee.

While some of those challenges persist, Galeazzi said there is more surety in the market about consumer demand. Indications point to South Texas onion area at near 7,200 acres, up from about 5,200 acres a year ago, he said. 

“Texas [onion growers] went big, and Mother Nature cooperated,” Galeazzi said. 

While there were a couple waves of cold weather, conditions were not as extreme as they were forecast to be, he said. Generally warm, dry and windy conditions kept disease pressure fairly low, and ample heat units have spurred good onion growth.

“Lots of things lined up very well this season,” Galeazzi said.

Even by late February, some shippers were offering Texas 1015 sweet onions, well ahead of the deal’s typical mid-March start due to warm weather.

“Quality is looking great since our winter was fairly dry and windy too,” Galeazzi said. 

The expected good quality and volume should be favorable for retailers and foodservice operators looking to promote the first domestic fresh onions of the year. 

Just over 20 shippers are approved to handle South Texas onions, and the number of growers is perhaps three to four times that number, he said.

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Getting back to normal

The pandemic disrupted many parts of the supply chain, but Galeazzi said the market is slowly returning to normal.

“Last year was a year where we finally kind of saw what looked like a return to some [normal] pattern,” he said. “So this year in Texas growers were able to look at it and say, OK, we feel like there’s going to be a good opportunity. We feel like there is going to be room for us to expand really put in some more acreage, especially on the sweet onions.

“Mother Nature cooperated, and so we’re just hoping that the marketplace continues to cooperate. It’s a win for everybody all the way around,” he continued.

The vast majority of onions grown in south Texas are Texas 1015 sweet onions, with the balance accounted for by conventional yellow, red and white.

Most sweet yellow onions are round (grano) but some flatter-shaped yellows (granex) are also offered.

“There’s an appetite out there for some variation and differentiation in the marketplace, and so our growers have tried to accommodate both the appetite for the round and the [flatter] onion,” he said. 

Onion sizing is expected from heavy to jumbos, Galeazzi said. Texas onion sizing used to have more colossal-sized onions, but the market has demanded more medium-sized onions that work well with consumer bags, he said.

Growers have accommodated that desire for more medium-sized onions by adjusting planting and seed variety parameters, he said.

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Season outlook

Traditionally, South Texas onions start around mid-March and St. Patrick’s Day, with shipments typically extending into June. This year, ship-ments had already begun by late February.

“The volume is going to be very light until we get to about the end of March, but it is a great opportunity for grocery stores to promote the first U.S. sweet onion of the season,” Galeazzi said. “It is a great advertisement opportunity.”

Plenty of promotional volume will be available from late March throughout the season.

“If weather cooperates, we’ll go through the entire month of June into the first days of July,” he said.