A packing date is set for Vidalia sweet onions. Otherwise, primary onion loadings a taking place from two western U.S. areas. Finally, here’s the outlook for imported mangoes.
An April 12th pack date for Vidalia onions has been set by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, which is about two weeks earlier than the pack dates during the past three seasons.
GDA rules mandate that no Vidalia onions can be packed or sold before the April 12 pack date. The pack date is established prior to each season to ensure the highest quality onions are delivered to retail stores for consumers across the country. The 2017 Vidalia onion crop is ahead of schedule because of the mild temperatures this winter thus resulting in the earlier pack date. Any sweet onions shipped from the Vidalia growing district prior to April 12th cannot be sold and shipped as Vidalia onions.
This is a very quiet time of year for Georgia produce shipments, with very light volume on a few items such as carrots and greens. Peach shipments are a couple of months away.
Storage Onion Shipments
The largest amount of onions coming out of domestic storages, averaging about 800 truck loads per week, is from western Idaho and nearby Malheur Co. in eastern Oregon. Similar onion volume also is be loaded from the Columbia Basin in Washington state and the adjacent Umatilla Basin of Oregon.
Idaho/Oregon onions – grossing about $4200 to Atlanta.
Southern Washington/ Northern Oregon onions – grossing about $4800 to New York City.
Mango Imports
Mango imports for markets in the U.S. are expected to be similar in volume to last year. Peruvian imported mangoes are rapidly declining as the season comes to a close, while it will be April before there is big volume crossing the border from Mexico.
U.S. consumption of mangos continues to increase as the tropical fruit becomes more mainstream than ever. Since 2005, mango volume has increased over 75 percent, from 62 million boxes in 2005 to 109 million boxes in 2016. U.S. per capita consumption has grown 58 percent since 2005 to almost three pounds per person in 2016.