BROOKS, OR - Though we may still be tiptoeing our way into 2017, it looks as though Mother Nature hasn’t finished with her winter hijinks. With heavy snows in the Northwest, transportation issues, and continued demand have made for a tight onion market.

Matt Curry, President of Curry & Co., recently told me that due to lowered supply throughout Idaho, the market has nearly doubled in a short amount of time.

“Most of us had a pretty good harvest this year, so the market initially started low. But now that supplies have been lessened, the market has rebounded,” Matt tells me. “As far as we heard, production for a lot of companies in the Northwest and Idaho was halted for awhile.”

The snow and ice made transportation of harvested onions slow as passes across Washington and Oregon closed, and also lessened the amount of product that could be packed. Matt says that, however, that as weather continues to lessen in severity, the market should normalize.

“Things should settle down over the next week as onions become available that weren’t before. The market was made from packing issues, not quality and condition, so we expect things to normalize,” Matt continues.

Matt says that his company will be shipping through the month of April, but is currently in an in-between period for crops. This has left Curry & Co.’s winter onions unaffected by the recent weather, in addition to allowing the company time to dry out before the spring onions are planted.

“Quality has been really good this far, even with the winter weather. Our onions have been bigger than normal this year, with great overall condition,” Matt finishes.

With the second half of the season right around the corner, AndNowUKnow will keep you up-to-date with updates no matter what the weather may bring.

Curry & Co.