This year’s shorter onion crop has several sheds in the Treasure Valley of Idaho-E. Oregon, including Haun Packing, based in Weiser, ID, looking at finishing the 2021-’22 shipping season earlier than normal.

Herb Haun, vice president general/sales manager of Haun Packing, said in mid-November he expects his supplies will go into late-February, which is two to three weeks sooner than most years. The crop was short due to a wet and cold planting season and extreme, protracted heat during the summer, with yields off and sizing overall smaller.

Quality, however, has remained good, and demand has been strong, he said. “Pricing is strong and has stayed very stable the last two months,” Haun said. “Quality is good, and we’re shipping mostly jumbos, mediums and colossals on yellows at this time.” Haun said his company had limited supplies of reds and whites.

Going into Thanksgiving week, he noted, “Demand is very good, and of course that’s what drives the market. We’ve seen bigger demand on reds than whites, which is probably why we cleaned out as early as we did with the reds.”

Prior to COVID-19, Haun had long maintained a strong foodservice customer base. While retail was a driving force in 2020-21, foodservice had seen a significant uptick as pandemic restrictions were dialed back. Haun said in recent weeks foodservice demand had started to wane somewhat again. He said the decrease could “be a lack of labor force for restaurants,” and when asked if the farming program could be changed in 2022, he answered, “Every time we’ve tried to outguess the market, it’s turned out wrong. Larger-sized onions is where the money is, and we’ve decided to continue with what’s worked for us. We’ve tried to doctor and change things, planting more seed and less seed, but in the end we believe in sticking with what’s tried and true.”

Looking to the 2022 planting season, Haun that although the company will maintain its longstanding Spanish Sweet onion program, a reduction in its acreage is being considered.

“The Treasure Valley as a whole will probably see a reduction in onion acreage due to input costs and the fact other crops bring good money without the stress, capital outlay and potential water shortages,” he said. 

Haun also commented on labor, which is almost universally short across the industry, saying Haun Packing has had an adequate workforce since harvest was completed. “We were a little short during harvest, but we’re doing OK now.” About transportation, another industrywide battle, he said, “For the reduced crop we’ve had, it’s been adequate, but from here on out with cold weather and not being able to use flatbeds, it could be tougher.”

With funding from a 2017 Oregon Transportation Bill, the region will see a rail reload center “that should be open sometime after the start of the 2022 shipping season,” Haun said. “And that will be good for the industry.”

Kathleen is a Colorado native and has been writing about produce for more than three decades and has been a professional journalist for more than four decades. Over the years she’s covered a cornucopia of crops grown both in the United States and abroad, and she’s visited dozens of states – traveling by car from her home base in Colorado to the Northwest and Southeast, as far as Vancouver, BC, and Homestead, FL. Now semi-retired, Kathleen continues to write about produce and is also penning an ongoing series of fiction novels. She’s a wife, mother of two grown sons and grandmother of six, and she and her fly fisherman husband Abe reside in the Banana Belt town of Cañon City.

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