Questions
Frequently asked
What this is, where the numbers come from, and what we will not say.
What is this?
A weekly reading of USDA shipping-point onion prices, broken out by origin, variety and pack, plus a Monday board summarizing what moved. Built for growers, shippers, brokers and produce buyers who need the FOB number without digging through the raw USDA reports.
Where does the data come from?
Public USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) shipping-point reports, plus USDA movement, terminal-market and retail-ad reports for context. Every page names its source. No private trade data or broker relationships, only what USDA publishes.
What does "mostly" mean?
USDA publishes a low-high price range for each origin, pack and grade, plus a narrower "mostly" range covering where most of the day's actual sales happened. We quote the mostly range wherever USDA gives one ("mostly $14.00-15.00, 50-lb sacks"), never a single invented number. Where USDA reports only the low-high, that is what we show.
Why is an origin blank some weeks?
Onion origins rotate through the year; not all of them ship at once. An origin outside its season (Georgia's spring crop in November, for example) simply has no fresh USDA quote. That is normal rotation, not missing data. Each origin page notes its typical season.
How often is it updated?
Shipping-point reports publish most business days. The trailing weeks of reports are pulled and read for what moved once a week; a Monday brief covers the prior week. Every page shows a Last updated date and the date of the data itself.
Is this trading or contracting advice?
No. This is a reading of public USDA shipping-point data as published and how it compares over time. We do not forecast prices, and we do not tell anyone what to buy, sell, or contract for. Decisions are yours, with your own market judgment.