L&M grows red, yellow and white onions in California’s Imperial Valley
L&M grows red, yellow and white onions in California’s Imperial Valley
L&M Cos. Inc., which is based in Raleigh, NC, and has offices in eight other locations around the country, is a diversified grower, shipper, broker, distributor, importer and exporter of produce, offering a wide assortment of products.
Onions are an important component in the mix, and the company grows onions in various locations throughout the United States, including California’s Imperial Valley, giving L&M’s customers year-round availability.
“We have a little over 300 acres of yellow, red and white onions planted down in the Brawley-Calipatria area of California,” said Ken Stewart, general manager of the company’s potato and onion operations.
Ken StewartThis year, “our [California] crop looks excellent so far, and we are a week away from starting the harvest of our first field,” Stewart said April 11. “We will be packing onions on April 21st. We will have about a five- to six-week run of packing, expecting to be done by June 1st.”
He expects a good crop with good size and “really good quality.” The company’s acreage for the deal is about the same as last year. “It is pretty much what we do every year.”
As with most producers, “we are heavy to yellow onions,” he said. “But we will have a good number of reds and whites to complement our yellows.”
At L&M, “we are cautiously optimistic about the market,” he said. “We were a bit more optimistic a couple of weeks ago, but we still think there might be a little window for us.”
The Imperial Valley is the only place in California that L&M grows onions, he said. “We buy and sell a little out of the Central Valley, but we don’t have any of our own.” When “our California crop is done,” production moves to southern New Mexico.
Weather conditions this growing season have been good, Stewart said. “It appears to us that we are going to have a really good crop. We are anticipating that we will have good yields” and will pack “in the neighborhood of 550,000 [50-pound] packages.”
With the ongoing California drought, water is an issue of concern, he said. That is more of a concern this year for growers in the central part of the state. “I think in the Imperial Valley probably has less issues,” at least this year, but “we are watching the drought situation very closely for future years. This year, we’ve got what water we need to finish our crop, so we are not concerned about this season, but … we need additional rain, and snowfall in the mountains, to continue on in the future.”
