While seed stem is problematic across the Vidalia onion growing region this year, John Shuman of Shuman Produce Inc. in Reidsville, GA, is optimistic that the area will still ship several million boxes of the popular sweet onion this summer.

While volume will be diminished, consumers are ready for Vidalia onion season. And even though Shuman has grown into a year-round supplier of sweet onions from multiple locations, Vidalia is where it all started.

“As an industry we’ve almost trained the consumer when to expect the Vidalia onion and they do, they look for it in April, May and June every year,” Mr. Shuman said. “With our storage capacity as an industry we’ve got Vidalia onions from mid-April to mid- to late August, almost to Labor Day in a good year. Consumers look for it, there’s an excitement about it, retailers see that excitement and they like to get out and promote it. It’s a great time of year to tie in with some seasonal promotional opportunities, particularly with Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.”

The Vidalia onion is an annual slice of Americana that has won the hearts of consumers, chefs and the media, and Shuman’s ‘RealSweet’ brand is among the category’s most popular.

“It has an affinity that has grown with the American consumer. We’ve done studies with the University of Georgia and various paces and when you ask consumers what comes to mind when they think of sweet onions, the first thing they say is Vidalia onions, so the name recognition is there, the popularity is there with the consumer, and the flavor profile and the look and feel and the characteristics like the shape and color all lend themselves to defining that category and making the Vidalia so popular,” Mr. Shuman said.

In fact, Vidalia onions became so popular in the 1980s and 1990s that consumers started clamoring for more sweet onions and a year-round category was launched when growers like Mr. Shuman began scouring the globe for locations that grew onions that would complement the Vidalia deal.

“Any time you’re a leader in a particular market or category you have to be first, better or different and the Vidalia onion certainly was first when it comes to making the sweet onion popular across America and carving out a niche,” Mr. Shuman said. “When retailers realized years and years ago how well the Vidalia onion sold throughout their stores they wanted that onion year-round. Obviously we couldn’t do that in Georgia, so a lot of us turned to South America and Central America and various parts of the United States and now we have a thriving sweet onion industry that’s basically driving the category.”

“Now they’re on the shelf 52 weeks of the year,” Mr. Shuman went on to say. “I think the Vidalia certainly lends itself to creating consumer demand, there’s an excitement around springtime and summer and outdoor activities and the Vidalia meets that window very nicely. There is a demand for it and I think there will continue to be a demand in that spring and summer window because that’s what people associate it with.”