“Demand exceeds availability,” Haun Packing Vice President and General/Sales Manager Herb Haun said about the 2021 onion crop, adding that his Weiser, ID-based operation, like the rest of the Treasure Valley, is looking at reduced yields.

Although yields are down between 10-20 percent in some fields and as much as 30-40 percent in others, Snake River Produce General Manager Kay Riley said quality of this year’s Spanish Sweet onion crop is quite good.

The Nyssa, OR, operation is shipping all three colors, and Riley said in mid-September, “We’re very pleased with the quality so far.”

For both potatoes and onions, “the 2020 crop has come out of the gate very strong,” according to Eric Beck, director of marketing for Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC in Idaho Falls, ID.

Communication within every company and association is key, particularly during these times of less in-person time and more face-to-face via app meetings and instant connecting across the internet.

And many marketing campaigns are expanding the digital component to keep association members in touch with each other while at the same time opening new avenues for meeting the needs of customers.

Although curveballs came at the produce industry from almost every angle this year, weather in the Treasure Valley of Idaho-E. Oregon wasn’t one of the wild pitches, according to Baker & Murakami Produce COO Cameron Skeen.

Skeen said the region experienced a very good growing season, and Ontario, OR-based Baker & Murakami saw a “much more normal start” to the new crop.

At Snake River Produce, in Nyssa, OR, both General Manager Kay Riley and Transportation Manager/Sales-Marketing Assistant Tiffany Cruickshank said in September they were glad to see steady demand for early onions out of Idaho-E. Oregon’s Treasure Valley.