Foodservice demand coming back for Idaho-eastern Oregon shippers

Foodservice demand is coming back for Idaho-eastern Oregon onion marketers, but it is complicated.

Shippers also are concern about further potential restaurant shutdowns with news of the COVID-19 delta variant causing new infections across the U.S.

Demand from foodservice operators has definitely come back, perhaps to 70% to 80% of the level before the COVID-19 pandemic, said Shay Myers, CEO of Owyhee Produce, Parma, Idaho.

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Myers said the industry is missing the purchases in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box program.

“Almost everyone’s boxes had onions in them, and so the lack of the food box program is definitely something that we can feel within our industry,” he said.

Ever-changing foodservice market conditions require quick responses, said Joe Ange, director of business development for Eagle Eye Produce, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

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“I think that being able to be agile, and have other packs and other products available, will help us get through any more blips that may come our way,” he said.

That means such tactics as adjusting pack sizes to some of the more consumer-focused retail style packs and mixing orders between potatoes and onions to better help customers meet their needs, Ange said.

On Aug. 9, Idaho-eastern Oregon onions sold for $8-9 per 50-pound sack of jumbo yellows, similar to $9 per sack at the same time a year ago, according to the USDA.

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