Checking in on the Idaho-eastern Oregon onion harvest, The Packer’s Tom Karst visited Aug. 12 with Shay Myers, CEO of Parma, Idaho-based Owyhee Produce.
“The crop has finished out very nicely, in some cases earlier than normal,” he said. “Yields are down a little bit from what our expectations were, but the quality should be phenomenal.”
Harvest began July 17 and may continue through September, he said.
Myers talks about minor crop adjustments that growers have made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the market outlook going forward.
“The food box program has had an incredibly good effect on onions,” Myers said. “Everyone likes to put onions in the box; they store well, they ship well and they are inexpensive.”
There is uncertainty ahead, he believes, but also reasons for optimism.
“It it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; you can be a orthodontist or a podiatrist or a farmer or restaurant operators, no matter what you’re doing, you’re dealing with some significant volatility and so it’s hard to be super optimistic,” he said. “The one thing that I can be optimistic about is I think those of us that are in the game 24 months from now, we will be in the best position that we’ve been in for a decade.”
