Drawing on generations of experience farming and shipping onions in Idaho-Eastern Oregon’s Treasure Valley, Murakami Produce is providing the marketplace with both excellent size and quality in Spanish Sweets this year.

Murakami Produce General Manager Grant Kitamura said in early November that although the region had seen challenges during the growing season, “the onions came in in good shape, and we do have excellent size and quality as well as manageable supplies. We always have big onions, and this year we have a full range of sizes from mediums up to super colossals.”

Kitamura added, “It was a beautiful crop, and we had ideal harvest conditions that made for excellent shelf life.”

Murakami Produce Sales Manager Chris Woo.During the summer, Murakami Produce saw a restructuring of its ownership when a group of multi-generational growers formed Murakami Growers LLC and bought the shares of retiring owner David Murakami. The new owners committed 100 percent of their collective crop to Murakami Produce, and Kitamura said the operation can supply all market segments with the combined acreage and normal yields.

“We are increasing our retail promotions as we work to keep our onions in the forefront,” he said. “And of course our size and quality make the Spanish Sweet the preferred onion for foodservice.”

To enlarge the retail program, Murakami installed a third Volm consumer packaging machine during the spring. The new machine packs 40-pound RPC, 25- and 50-pound boxes and three-pound retail consumer bags.

Murakami and several other shippers from the Treasure Valley export onions to a number of foreign markets, and Kitamura said the early season saw some of those markets tightening up. “But they could open up again as the season continues,” he said.

“Fuel prices are lowering now, and that often is an indicator of an improving economy. My hope is that the economy continues to strengthen and onion consumption continues to grow. Right now we’re in the early season, and we plan to practice what we preach about orderly marketing,” he said.

The one-on-one approach to tailored programs for its customers is mirrored by Murakami’s hands-on quality control. The company, a founding member of Certified Onions Inc., adheres to strict food-safety inspections and protocol. And while the harvest is largely automated, sorting of the onions is done by hand.

Kitamura said hand sorting provides customers with the quality “they have come to expect.”

For sales, Murakami partners with Idaho Falls, ID-based Potandon Produce. The Spanish Sweets are packed and shipped from the Ontario, OR, facility, which consists of 250,000 square feet of insulated storage for 75,000 bins, each with capacity for 1,500 pounds of field-run onions.