When produce haulers think of loading storage onions, the Northwest often comes to mind first, since it leads the nation in volume in this category.
The new season for Northwest onions is upon us and shipments are expected to be about normal.
Oregon was the nation’s second-largest producer of storage onions in 2012. The Beaver State shipped 24 percent of national supplies. Storage onions ranked 10th on the state’s Top 40 Commodities list for 2012.
Malheur County onions are part of the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion growing region and represent significant volume for the state. A total of 10,600 acres of onions were harvested in Malheur County. About 8,700 acres were harvested for the fresh market, of which around 5,133 thousand hundredweight (cwt) were produced.
Meanwhile, Washington state ranked 11th nationally for all onion shipments in 2012.
Washington ranked second nationally for summer onion shipments, providing the nation with 23.1 percent of its supplies. In 2012, Washington producers harvested 3,100 acres of summer non-storage onions with production set at 1,147 cwt.
During the same crop year, producers harvested 23,500 acres of summer storage onions with production set at 13,865 cwt.
Onions are grossing about $3500 to Chicago.