A second serious snowstorm ranging from 12 to 18 inches has caused the collapse of more onion storage sheds in the Treasure Valley region. Onion haulers had been showing up at some buildings, but had nothing to load due to the chaos. The weather forecast predicted much less snowfall and a number of companies shut down packing lines January 20th to focus all efforts to removing snow from roofs. Some onion shippers in Nyssa, OR are describing the event as a catastrophe.
Four buildings collapsed January 18 and 19 at Owyhee Produce in Nyssa, which included the company’s main storage facility. The operation lost around 20 millions pounds of onions in the storage shed. The good news is the packing shed had minimal damage and was planning to resume onion shipping on a limited basis this week.
The previous snow, followed by rain that saturated it, also caused numerous collapses. (See January 13th Trucking Report)
Murakami Produce of Ontario, OR was keeping its fingers crossed and has yet to lose any buildings, perhaps because it moved packing line workers to roof tops to shovel snow.
Snake River Produce in Nyssa, OR lost a facility January 19th in which it stores packed product. The building had about 20,000 bags of onions stored. The company was planning to convert another building to storage. It had lost another storage building, which had contained trucks but no onions, in the first snowstorm. It was hoping to start packing and shipping this week.
Golden West Produce, based in Nyssa has lost six buildings — three in each storm. The latest damage included the packing shed. Overall, about 30 to 40 onion buildings have collapsed in the last two weeks.
F.O.B. onion prices at shipping point have been increasing as a result of the weather-induced chaos. Around the holidays the price was between $4 and $5 cwt., but has increased to $8 and very well could go up more.
Idaho and Malheur County onions – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.