Price trend
Well above normalOnion price trend
The market's reference spec, yellow jumbo in 50 lb sacks, at every origin that quotes it, 2021 to 2026
Data through Aug 21, 2026 · source last checked Aug 24, 2026 · page revised Aug 24, 2026
Cite
- Washington
- Idaho-Eastern Oregon
- California
- New Mexico
- Texas
- Mexico
- New York
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping-point onion FOB reports (FV130)
- Series
- Yellow jumbo onions, 50 lb sacks, FOB, every quoting origin
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, low-high range
- Geography
- Across US growing origins
- Unit
- $/50 lb sack
- Calculation
- Full published history, no averaging across districts
- Last observation
- Aug 21, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days
Mostly $15.00 per 50 lb sack, 58% above the 5-yr median. Comparison midpoint: $15.00.
Washington yellow jumbo in 50 lb sacks is mostly $15.00 as of 2026-08-21, up 114.3% year over year from $7.00. The current level sits 58% above the 5-year median of $9.50. Idaho-Eastern Oregon quotes $16.00 on 2026-08-21, New Mexico $19.00 on 2026-08-13.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0.0% |
| Month over month | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0.0% |
| Year over year | $15.00 | $7.00 | +114.3% |
| vs 5-yr median | $15.00 | $9.50 | +57.9% |
| Year | Lowest quote | Highest quote | Origins quoting | Days quoted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $7.00 | $21.00 | 5 | 120 |
| 2022 | $12.00 | $30.00 | 7 | 250 |
| 2023 | $7.00 | $20.00 | 7 | 249 |
| 2024 | $8.00 | $28.00 | 7 | 249 |
| 2025 | $5.00 | $14.00 | 6 | 247 |
| 2026 | $5.50 | $21.00 | 6 | 161 |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Washington yellow jumbo in 50 lb sacks held mostly $15.00 on 2026-08-19, unchanged week and month over month. The benchmark is up $8.00 year over year and stands 50% above the five-year median of $10.00. Idaho-Eastern Oregon quoted $16.00 same-date, California $15.00 through 2026-08-14, and New Mexico $19.00 through 2026-08-13.
An earlier week
Yellow jumbo in 50 lb sacks mostly $15.00, up $3.00 from the prior month. Year over year the spec is up $8.00. Versus the 5-year median, the price sits 50% above normal.
An earlier week
Yellow jumbo in 50 lb sacks mostly $15.00 across the active origins, 50 percent above the 5-year median. The market added a dollar on the month. Year over year, the reference spec has doubled from $7.50. New Mexico and Idaho-Eastern Oregon are quoting the high end at $19 and $17.
How to read the onion price trend
There is no single national onion price, and this page does not print one. USDA Market News quotes onions district by district, and each quote is a real range from confirmed sales at that shipping point. Averaging those districts together would produce a number no one publishes and no one trades on, so the trend here is read off one fixed specification instead: yellow jumbo onions in 50-lb sacks, the most-quoted combination in the USDA file and the closest thing the trade has to a benchmark. Each line above is one origin's real quotes for exactly that spec.
The saw-tooth shape is the crop calendar, not volatility. A storage district like Idaho-Eastern Oregon or the Columbia Basin quotes from harvest in late summer through spring and then goes silent when the sheds empty, while the desert and spring-crop districts pick the market up for the summer. A line that stops in April and restarts in August has not crashed. It has finished its season. Follow the origins in relay across the chart rather than reading any single line as the market.
The year-by-year table is the plain version of the same story: the lowest and highest price USDA published for this spec in each calendar year, with the number of origins and report days behind it. A wide spread means the year held both a glut and a squeeze. Read the origin count too, because a year with fewer quoting origins is a thinner sample, not necessarily a different market.
For the current picture rather than the arc, the weekly board ranks this week's biggest moves, and the variety and pack pages cut the same USDA data by product instead of by time. Know Your Onions reports these prices as published and does not forecast where they go next.