Packs
Well above normal50 lb sacks onion prices
A 50 lb sack of onions costs mostly $10.00-11.00 FOB at the shipping point, yellow medium out of Washington, as of Aug 28, 2026, per USDA shipping-point reports.
Data through Aug 28, 2026 · source last checked Aug 31, 2026 · page revised Aug 31, 2026
Cite
- Washington
- Idaho-Eastern Oregon
- California
- New Mexico
- Texas
- New York
- Mexico
- Wisconsin
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping-point onion FOB reports (FV130)
- Series
- Onions by pack: 50 lb sacks
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, low-high range
- Geography
- Across US growing origins
- Unit
- $/50 lb sack
- Last observation
- Aug 28, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days
Mostly $10.00-11.00 per 50 lb sack, 40% above the 5-yr median. Comparison midpoint: $10.50.
Mostly $10.00-11.00 per 50-lb sacks, yellow medium from Washington, ran 40% above the 5-year median on Aug 28. The benchmark fell 19.2% on the week but sits 50% above year-ago levels.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $10.50 | $13.00 | -19.2% |
| Month over month | $10.50 | $14.00 | -25.0% |
| Year over year | $10.50 | $7.00 | +50.0% |
| vs 5-yr median | $10.50 | $7.50 | +40.0% |
Previous weeks
Week of Aug 21, 2026
Washington yellow medium mostly $13.00 per 50-lb sack as of Aug 21, off 50 cents on the week and a dollar on the month. The price runs 73% above the 5-year median. Year over year it is up $6.00.
An earlier week
Washington yellow medium mostly $13.00, 50 lb sacks, running 73% above the five-year median. Prices fell 50 cents on the week and a dollar from the prior month, yet remain 6 dollars above year-ago values.
An earlier week
Yellow medium onions mostly $13.00-14.00, 50-lb sacks, eased 50 cents on the week from $14.00 to a $13.50 midpoint. Month-over-month the market has firmed 20.5%, rebounding from $11.00 in mid-July. Prices sit 80% above the 5-year median of $7.50, with New Mexico at $15 per sack leading the origins.
An earlier week
Yellow medium onions in 50-lb sacks mostly $13.00-15.00, up 20.5% month over month and 75% above the five-year median. The range spans New Mexico at $15.00 down to California at $13.00, with Washington at $14.00 and Idaho-Eastern Oregon at $13.25. Texas and Wisconsin quotations are stale, dating to May and March.
About 50 lb sacks onion prices
The 50-lb sack is the workhorse of the wholesale onion trade and the pack most USDA shipping-point quotes are written against. It is a mesh or poly bag holding fifty pounds of loose onions of one size, and it is what moves the storage crop: yellows out of Idaho-Eastern Oregon, the Columbia Basin, southern New Mexico and the other domestic districts almost always quote here first. Buyers are repackers who break sacks down into consumer bags, foodservice distributors, and retail distribution centers taking whole pallets. Because it is the deepest and most continuously quoted pack, the 50-lb sack is the reference price the rest of the market is read against. It is also the largest pack on the wholesale menu, so the comparison to a 25-lb sack or a 40-lb carton has to be done per pound and never per package.
Two things follow from that, and they are what make this page usable next to the origin pages. First, the quote itself: a USDA shipping-point price is written per package, not per pound, so every figure on this page is dollars for one 50-lb sack. Second, the volume. USDA publishes onion movement in units of 10,000 pounds, which is 200 fifty-pound sacks to the unit. When an origin page reports 570 units crossed or shipped in a day, that is 5.7 million pounds, which is 114,000 sacks at this pack. Holding the price per sack and the packages per unit in the same head is how a quote on this page turns into what a load actually costs.
Common questions
How much does a 50 lb sack of onions cost?
mostly $10.00-11.00 FOB at the shipping point, for yellow medium out of Washington, as of Aug 28, 2026 (USDA). That is a wholesale price for the onions loaded on a truck at the packing shed, before freight, and it is not a retail price: a grocery shelf adds haul, handling, the retailer's margin and shrink on top. The chart above compares the quote across origins.