For the first time in memory, the acreage devoted to onions in South Texas is probably below the 5,000 figure.

“I’m not sure why but they don’t report (planted) acreage anymore,” said Don Ed Holmes, owner of The Onion House in Weslaco, TX. “I didn’t vote for that but that’s the way it is. Looking at what’s out there, it appears that we are off again. Maybe 10 percent less than last year.”

In 2015, Holmes said acreage was down and ended up below 6,000 acres. This year, he suspects the final figure will be less than 5,000. The longtime Texas onion veteran was hard pressed to explain exactly why but he did remind this reporter that last year was disastrous for many grower-shippers. It started raining on April 1 in 2015 — right after the harvest began — and rained almost non-stop for two months. That resulted in less than half a crop with some growers literally rained out for the season. Much acreage was abandoned and it just couldn’t be harvested.

In late February of this year, Holmes said the crop “looked beautiful” but he quipped “you could have said that last year on February 22nd as well.”

So far during the growing season, rain has been minimal. In fact, Holmes said the crop could use a little rain, with the optimum word being “little.” With the decreased acreage and the current onion market being fairly steady, Texas growers and shippers are optimistic that a strong marketing opportunity awaits the harvest, which should begin in late March. Holmes said the lighter supplies “bode well” as far as the opening market price is concerned.

As of late February, onion volume coming from Mexico and crossing the border in South Texas was lighter than usual, though Holmes said “it should start to take off next week.” He reported that the market was steady with 50-pound sacks of jumbo onions commanding about $11. The higher grade carton onions were in the $14 to $15 range.

The Onion House executive was anticipating that the storage onions shipped from Idaho and Oregon warehouses would start to wane soon as he said National Onion Association inventory reports from that region are on the low side. Those storage onions, when there are a lot of them, tend to create a downward pressure on the price. Holmes was hopeful that by the time South Texas begins to harvest its crop that region won’t be a factor.

He noted that this year’s wild card is the California desert production. With the problems Texas had last year, “Imperial Valley hit a homerun,” he said. It was the only area with good supplies in April and grower-shippers capitalized on a demand-exceeds-supply situation.

The big question is what did those growers do with all the money they made on the backs of Texas’ lost production in 2015? If they put it back into the ground with increased acreage this year, a supply-demand equation out of whack could be the result. Holmes said only time will tell as California is expected to enter the market in about a month.

For The Onion House, 2016 is shaping up to be a fairly typical year with regard to variety distribution. The firm’s acreage reflects a varietal split of 75 percent yellow varieties, 15 percent reds and 10 percent whites. Holmes said the company’s acreage is on par with previous seasons and there have been no material changes in the firm’s operations or on its sales desk.