Posts Tagged “Peruvian onion imports”
Imported Peruvian sweet onions are now arriving in the U.S., according to Bland Farms of Reidsville, GA.
A major grower of Vidalia sweet onions in southeast Georgia, Bland has transitioned to Peruvian product as part of its program to supply onions on a year around basis.
The company’s acreage in Peru has increased this year–a time when there are reports of growers cutting back on planted acreage to improve FOBs.
Bland Farms owns and operates its own fields in Peru and it has been farming there for nearly 30 years. The company avoids contracting with outside growers and has its own agronomist managing the crop.
Last fall, Bland Farms purchased the Vidalia facility it had leased for years and has since made significant investments in expanding its storage capacity as well as upgrading refrigeration and cooling technology. This allows the company to move onions from the field through drying and down to storage temperature in a fraction of the time it once took, helping it protect quality, extend shelf life and get more of the crop into controlled storage faster. The company also has its Glennville, GA operation, which gives it the largest storage capacity in the industry and allows it to extend the Vidalia season.
The Peruvian season is expected to run through January. From there, the Bland will transition to Mexico for sweet onions until it returns to Vidalia product in the spring.
Imports of Peruvian onions began on a limited basis by some importers with others getting underway in early September. Strong, consistent volumes are now being reported.
Bland Farms of Glennville, GA was shipping Vidalia sweet onions through late September and then transitioned to premium sweet onions from Peru.
Excellent size and quality are being reported as very strong this year by Bland.
G&R Farms of Glennville, GA typically offers Peruvian onions from Labor Day until Vidalia season kicks off in April.
The company notes this timing allows it to maintain a seamless supply of sweet onions for retail customers.
G&R describes the quality of Peruvian onions this year as “fantastic.”
Volume at G&R Farms is expected to be up 3% to 5% compared to last year.
Shuman Farms of Reidsville, GA began shipping Peruvian sweet onions in early September and will continue through late April. The company expects to have its normal production with good quality across the board.
L.G. Herndon Jr. Farms Inc., Lyons, GA completed its Vidalia sweet onions season this summer, and began receiving Peruvian onions in early August. Volume is expected to be similar to a year ago with supplies available until mid March.
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Family business Bland Farms in Glennville, GA., has been exporting Peruvian sweet onions for 28 years — and this year is shaping up to be a good season with a good-sized crop and quality.
A difference this year is Vidalia onion shipments are lasting longer, which can affect imports of sweet onions from Peru.
The Vidalia sweet onion season is running a few weeks longer than normal. Because of this, Bland Farms has slowed imports of its Peru premium sweet onions.
The company prefers to ship the Vidalias as long as they are available and the quality is good. Fortunately, Bland has been able to move most of the sweets it has out of Peru to Spain and Chile.
It’s a similar situation for Shuman Farms of Reidsville, GA. The grower/shipper expects the operation to start shipping sweet onions from Peru in mid-September.
Shuman has had a robust Vidalia season this year, and is prepared for a smooth transition to its Peruvian season.
G&R Farms of Glennville, GA, had recently visited Peru, where it met with the farm’s production team. Harvest was underway south of the equator and the crop looked good.
G&R Farms, which has exported onions from Peru for 15 years, sources its onions from the Ica and Arequipa regions in Peru.
As the Peruvian sweet onion season draws to a close, Keystone Fruit Marketing of Greencastle, PA, a division of Progressive Produce of Los Angeles, is gearing up to transition from Peruvian Mayan Sweets to Mexican Mayan Sweets.
Keystone’s Mayan Sweets are well-recognized as a respected and established brand with a long history. The company’s foray into sweet onions began in the early 1990s when it became the first company to grow sweet onions in Peru.
The founders of Keystone wanted to have a year-round sweet onion program, and that meant going to various regions across North and South America to ensure a high-quality sweet onions available throughout the year.
Today, Keystone Fruit Marketing remains one of the largest importers of sweet onions from Peru into the United States and now has grower partners in multiple regions, including Washington, California, Mexico, Texas and Georgia.
The Peruvian sweet onion season, a cornerstone of Keystone’s year-round program, typically runs from late July through March, with peak supply from September to December.
As the Peruvian sweet onion season nears its conclusion, Keystone anticipates the start of the Mexican sweet onion season, set to kick off in mid-January. Early indications suggest an excellent crop.
Keystone expects goos supplies of Mexican sweet onions available through April, along with a full line of onion varieties, including red, white, yellow and it flat sweet onions for 2024.
Peruvian onions imported by the U.S. have increased from 130,807 metric tons in 2018 to 164,734 metric tons in 2022, according to statistics from the USDA.
The total value of U.S. imports of Peruvian onions rose from $52.3 million in 2018 to $67 million in 2022, the USDA said.
The value of U.S. imports of Peruvian onions topped $412.30 per metric ton in 2022, up from $406.50 in 2021 but down from $446 per metric ton in 2020, according to trade numbers from USDA.
Peru accounted for 12% of total U.S. onion imports in 2022, the same share as in 2018.
In 2022, Peru shipped onions to the U.S. in every month but June, according to the USDA. The top shipment months were October through December, accounting for more than half of Peru’s total onion shipments to U.S.
However, Peru shipped a significant volume of onions to the U.S. from September through March.
Imports of Peruvian onions by Bland Farmsof Greenville, GA are seasonally increasing.
Hot weather in Peru affected sizing and yields from early fields resulting in the crop being a little heavier on mediums than normal, with limited supplies of the big, colossal onions.
Bland Farms finished its Vidalia onion shipments in late August and expects to carry Peruvian onions until February, when the company will start its Mexican crop.
The grower/shipper who has its own farms in Peru, expects a shorter-than-normal season out of Peru due to reduced yields and disease problems in some fields.
Another issue is there have been a few delays in moving Peruvian ocean container shipments through the Panama Canal because of a freight backlog there.
Bland Farms has been sourcing onions from Peru for at least three decades to find the complement its Vidalia onions. After being sized in packing sheds, Peruvian onions grown by Bland Farms are shipped to the U.S. in 50-pound bags, loaded in ocean containers for transport. Upon arrival in the U.S., they are sorted, graded and packed for customers.
Packing the onions in the U.S. allows Bland Farms to put a “second eye” on the crop and make sure that any issues such as moisture or mold are dealt with before they are shipped.
Bland Farms typically brings about 1,200 to 1,500 containers of Peruvian onions annually to the U.S. market. Last season, volume was cut a bit because of high ocean freight.
This may be the best onion crop from Peru in a decade, at least according to G&R Farms of Glennville, GA.
The company’s first Peruvian imports arrived in August and will continue into April when the Vidalia onion crop gets underway.
Bland Farms LLC of Glennville, GA also expects a good crop from Peru due to good growing conditions. A consistent crop, very comparable to past years past, with a nice, even size profile is seen. Volume from Bland Farms should be similar to last year, The company started started in September and will go through the spring.
Shuman Farms of Reidsville, GA emphasizes the importance Peruvian onions in it program. Shuman imports sweet onions through the Port of Savannah allowing the operation to maintain a full-time local workforce 12-months of the year.
Peru accounts for about 23% of imported onions, second only to Mexico, according to the USDA. In 2021, the U.S. imported nearly 357 million pounds of Peruvian onions, up from about 315 million pounds in 2020.
G&R notes Peru is a perfect climate and ecology to produce a great onion crop that mirrors the consistent quality and flavor you would find from Vidalia sweet onions. The Peruvian sweet onion crop provides a year-round option for fresh, sweet onions when the U.S. sweet onion industry is out of production.
Excellent Peruvian onion imports are seen this season as the early crop is show exceptional quality. It may be the best crop in three decades.
Mild, sweet, large and round with flattened tops and bottoms, Peru’s sweet onions are typically available September through April, complementing the Vidalia, Ga., region’s trademarked Vidalia onions, usually shipped April through September.
However, G&R Farms of Glennville, GA reports shipping schedules may be a little behind last year because of delays with transportation and logistics.
Bland Farms of Glennville, GA, has a corporate office and onion farms in Ica, as well as more farms in Arequipa, Peru.
Shuman Farms of Reidsville, GA., began shipping RealSweet onions from Peru in early September. The company reports very good quality and sizing.
The grower/shipper has a full-time staff and infrastructure in Peru, where there was a recent update to the facility and packing house. The company installed new grading lines and sorting equipment to improve product quality and a more efficient final repack in Georgia after passing through the Port of Savannah.
Northwest potato shipments from the Skagit Valley should be good this season. At the same time imports of Peruvian onions are looking favorable for American ports.
Skagit Valley Potato Shipments
The Skagit Valley lies in the northwestern corner of the state of Washington. According to Wikipedia, its defining feature is the Skagit River, which snakes through local communities including the seat of Skagit County, Mount Vernon, as well as Sedro-Wooley, Concrete, Lyman-Hamilton and Burlington.
There are about 90,000 acres of land devoted to agriculture, which has long been the primary industry in the Skagit Valley of the Cascade Mountain Range. Farmers produce some $300 million in a variety of crops that include potatoes, berries, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers and the iconic tulips and daffodils as well as livestock and dairy products.
The Skagit Valley grows over 80 crops on 93,000 acres annually, including” some 300 million pounds of red, yellow and white potatoes. Additionally, about 95 percent of the red potatoes grown in Washington state are grown in the Skagit Valley. The acreage is used to produce mostly fresh market reds, whites, yellows, purple, fingerlings and some chipping potatoes.
About 12,000 acres of potatoes are now grown in Skagit County, a number that has remained constant for the last year of available records, 2015.
Harvest is just getting underway and good volume shipments are seen starting around Labor Day.
Peruvian Onion Imports
Last year Peru exported about 3,500 containers representing nearly 108,000 tons to the United States, with similar volume expected this season, which begins in a couple of months.
Peru has 6000 to 7200 acres of sweet onions with the main production areas being Ica, Norte Chico de Lima, and Arequipa.
Peru imported sweet onions get underway as the Vidalia sweet onion storage program is winding down. Some U.S. onion companies have partnered with local Peruvian growers. Volume is growing each season by about 5 to 7 percent. About 85 percent of Peruvian onion exports are coming to the United States, arriving mostly by boat at ports on both the east and west coasts.
What a difference a year makes when it comes to onion shipments across the nation.Unlike last fall and winter, the 2016-7 shipping season for onions may not be better for growers and shippers, but it should mean a significant increase in loading opportunities for onion haulers. Okay, so onions not be offer prime freight rates.
Peri & Sons Farms, Yerington, N.Y., is an onion grower and shipper has sees plenty of global onion supplies. The company also has onion operations in the Mason Valley of Nevada and the Imperial and San Joaquin Valleys of California. Yields this past growing season were phenomenal.
While Peruvian onion imports are up slightly year-to-date – about 20 percent, overall import volumes from Peru will be down being slightly down from last season. Peruvian sweet onions are imported from September to February.
It is too early to tell what imported Mexican volume will be.
Generally, Northwest onion shipments this season appears to be similar to last year. The Northwest sweet onions are harvested in August and September and sold in the winter months with best quality product available in September and October. The biggest volume area in the Northwest this time of year is in western Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon. About 1,000 truck loads are being shipped weekly.
Western Idaho/Eastern Oregon storage onions – grossing about $3200 to Chicago; $5100 to New York City.
The Peruvian Mayan sweets are available from September to January, but because they aren’t storage onions, they’re continually harvested to provide fresh product.
Sweet onions from Walla Walla, WA has been declining in recent years and is down from its peak of 1,200 acres. However, some observers believe the decline has reached a low and is now stabilizing.
Vidalia sweet onions are grown in Tattnall and Toombs counties in Georgia and are shipped from late April to August.