Why prices are moving
Well above normalWhy are onion prices falling right now?
mostly $16.00 per 50 lb sack FOB, Aug 21, 2026, at the benchmark spec. Broadly flat for 4 weeks.
Data through Aug 21, 2026 · source last checked Aug 24, 2026 · page revised Aug 24, 2026
Cite
- Comparison midpoint
- USDA mostly / low-high range
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping-point onion FOB reports (FV130)
- Series
- Yellow jumbo onions, 50 lb sacks, Idaho-Eastern Oregon, FOB
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, low-high range
- Geography
- Idaho-Eastern Oregon
- Unit
- $/50 lb sack
- Last observation
- Aug 21, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days, in season
The benchmark (yellow jumbo, 50 lb sacks, Idaho-Eastern Oregon) is quoted at mostly $16.00 per 50 lb sack and has been broadly flat for 4 weeks. Idaho and Oregon shipped 461 units of 10,000 pounds on Aug 20, 2026 (USDA movement). 5 origins are currently quoting FOB prices. The market is at the start of the storage-crop season, when the Northwest harvest normally resets supply.
Onion prices at the benchmark spec have been broadly flat for 4 weeks, with no sustained move in either direction. For the current picture, see the weekly board.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $16.00 | $16.00 | 0.0% |
| Month over month | $16.00 | n/a | n/a |
| Year over year | $16.00 | $7.00 | +128.6% |
| vs 5-yr median | $16.00 | $11.00 | +45.5% |
What makes onion prices fall
Onion prices fall the way they rise, only with the calendar's help: every August a new storage crop arrives whether or not the market wants it, and that reset is the single most reliable downward force in this market.
The harvest reset comes first. When the Northwest storage crop comes in big and sound, led by Idaho-Eastern Oregon, the sheds fill, shippers compete for movement, and the benchmark spec typically sets its seasonal lows in the months right after harvest. The long-run trend page shows that sawtooth across years.
Heavy shipments keep the pressure on. Storage onions must move before quality declines, so a big crop creates its own selling pressure all winter: the movement volumes on the origin pages are the public read on how hard supply is pushing into the market.
Broad origin overlap is the competitive counterweight. When many origins quote at once, domestic storage, the spring crops and the import crossings together, buyers have alternatives and no single shipper can hold a price; the weekly board shows that breadth directly.
Import competition caps rallies and deepens declines. Crossings from Mexico and Peru arrive on their own production calendars, and when they land into an already-supplied domestic market, the added volume presses the whole complex lower.
Demand is steady, which cuts both ways. Onions are a kitchen staple with little demand response: demand will not surge to absorb a big crop, so oversupply has nowhere to go but price. The same steadiness that makes shortages sharp makes gluts long.
A falling stretch usually starts with a big, sound crop meeting steady demand, with origin overlap and imports deciding how far it carries. The rising twin of this page covers the same factors running the other way.