The shipping season for Peruvian sweet onion lasts longer than any other sweet onion area – six to seven months. It starts in August as Vidalia sweet onions are winding down, and continues into February and sometimes March. A high percentage of those onions are exported to the U.S.
Bland Farms LLC of Glennvile, GA is the largest grower-shipper of Vidalia onions with 2,000 acres. It has nearly that much production from Peru. The company typically ships about 2 million 40-pound equivalent boxes of Vidalias, compared to 1.8 million out of Peru,.
Keystone Fruit Marketing Co. of Greencastle, PA points out due to the long onion season from Peru, the product is imported by the country 50 percent of the year.
L.G. Herndon Jr. Farms Inc. of Lyons, GA notes Peruvian onions are particularly important to East Coast markets in the U.S. In the west during the Peruvian season there are sweet onions being shipped out of California and Nevada.
The company points out Chilean sweet onions would be exported to the U.S. in February and March, but in the past seven to eight years that volume is much less..