On-time start expected for Idaho-East Oregon onion harvest

Troublesome springtime weather gave way to much-improved conditions during the early summer, enabling a good, on-time start to the East Oregon-Idaho onion harvest, grower-shippers said.

Heavy rainfall and cold weather delayed the start of the growing season, said Dallin Klingler, marketing and communications manager for Eagle Eye Produce, Nyssa, Ore.

But that changed as the season progressed.

“Over the past few months, there have been pretty ideal conditions,” he said the second week of August. “We think we’re going to have a great yield and some good quality this year.”

Shipping out of the company’s facilities in Idaho and Eastern Oregon started Aug. 14, and harvesting should continue through September or early October.

“Our size profile is larger than we’ve had in the last couple of years,” he said.

Volume should be up because of some added supply.

Eagle Eye Produce sells red, white and yellow onions.

This onion season should be different from the past couple of years, said John Vlahandreas, onion sales director for family-owned Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

“I think we’re going to see a relatively normal harvest,” he said.

Water has been plentiful, planting was done on time, and weather has not been as hot as recent years, he said.

The company ships yellow, white and red onions in a variety of bags, cartons and packaging options, but the 50-pound sack of yellows is its buyers’ most popular choice, he said.

Vlahandreas expected volume at Wada Farms to be up slightly this year, but he said yields can’t be determined for sure until harvest begins.

Nyssa-based Snake River Produce Co. LLC started its harvest Aug. 9 and will run until mid-October, said Josh Frederick, CEO, general manager and sales manager.

“We are actually up a little this year on acreage, and at the moment, yields are up and somewhat comparable to last season for the majority of fields,” he said

The company targets to grow an average of jumbo-size onions, but it will have a mixture of medium to super colossals this season because of cool conditions.

“The month of July really made the crop bulk and size up for our farms,” Frederick said.

Snake River Produce provides Spanish sweet onions in a variety of packages and sizes, he said. The company ships yellow, white and red onions from August until April.

Riverfront Produce Co. LLC, Payette, Idaho, also will ship yellow, red and white onions with harvest starting the last week of August and continuing until the first week of October, said Nick Gomeza, who handles sales for the company.

Riverfront Produce was about two weeks behind normal for its onion harvest because “growing conditions were off this year,” he said.

“Spring and early summer were abnormally cool, then heat spiked when onions were still trying to grow tops and close the row,” he said.

But in August he said, “Quality looks fantastic.”

Size was off some, but he said he anticipated a strong finish to the season with volume similar to last year.

At Owyhee Produce, Parma, Idaho, Bailey Meyers, agritourism and marketing manager, was impressed with the late-July start to the Parma harvest.

“It was good timing, considering the weather pattern we have had,” she said. “It never really seemed to heat up. It just stayed pretty mellow.”

Warm weather in July got picking on track, with full harvest underway by the second week of August and expected to continue until October.

Owyhee Produce offers red, white and yellow onions in all pack sizes year-round, said Meyers, who added that the quality of the onions has been good.

“We’re excited for how they’re turning out right now,” she said.

Onion grower-shippers were hoping for continued strong prices this season.

“Prices need to be up,” said Frederick of Snake River Produce.

The cost of growing onions continues to increase with cost of goods and labor on a weekly basis, he said.

“Last year things started out where they needed to be marketwise, and that trend needs to continue so all us growers can survive another season,” Frederick said. “Things are already up an average of 40% compared to last year, and the market is going to have to reflect that in order to keep going.”

For the past couple of years, prices have been good, but yields have been down, said Vlahandreas of Wada Farms. He said prices will depend on conditions in other growing areas.

“You have a lot of areas that have onions,” he said, including Washington, Idaho, Canada, Wisconsin, Colorado, New York and North Dakota.

Conditions, such as smoke from wildfires in Canada, could affect crops in parts of the U.S. as well as Canada, he said, which could affect prices.

Klingler of Eagle Eye Produce was concerned about supply overlap.

“If multiple regions overlap with supply and put too much supply in the market, it might make the market soften,” he said.

Gomeza of Riverfront Produce said he was hopeful that California would wrap up soon, and Washington would get its intermediate crop off the floors that are needed for storage crop, “allowing prices to firm up and climb.”