Each year, River Point Farms, headquartered in Hermiston, OR, moves approximately 475 million pounds of onions. “We are mostly a ‘program’ or contract supplier to national account foodservice companies, industrial ingredient companies and national restaurant chains, in that much of our volume is contracted at set weekly volumes throughout the year,” President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Hale told The Produce News. “This makes our shipped volume mostly consistent throughout the seasons.”

During the storage season, which begins in November and continues through May, Hale said, “We use about 275 million pounds of onions.”

Each year, River Point Farms moves approximately 475 million pounds of onions to its North American customers. One of the company's trademarked varieties, Hermiston Sweets, are very popular during the holiday season and provide consumers with a versatile onion during meal preparation. (Photo courtesy of River Point Farms)Bill Dean, vice president/quality and sustainability, said River Point Farms grows an array of onions designed to meet customer expectations. “We annually grow about 10 different red and 10 different yellow onion varieties and several different white varieties, each grown for specific customer needs, including but not limited to timing of customer delivery, customer use of onions such as a salsa, soup or salad or sandwich,” he said. “We do intensive and extensive onion variety research each year, growing and testing about 200 different onion varieties under River Point Farms real-time growing conditions. And from this testing we annually select one or two varieties per color that we believe show promise for our customers.”

The company also services retail accounts. “River Point Farms continues to expand its volume of all onions produced, with corresponding customer volume expansion to all different categories of onion users including retailers, with such expansion — of course — based on customer satisfaction,” Hale commented. “This includes retail expansion, working with Curry and Co. in Brooks, OR, on our long-term retail programs shipping yellows, reds, whites, Hermiston Sweets, and Hermiston SweetReds from August through April each year. We pride ourselves in supplying some of the best retailers in the nation.”

Heat stress was a factor this growing season in the Pacific Northwest. “Size is average for this year,” said Delbert Gehrke, vice president/farm. “Quality is also average, which is better than earlier anticipated given the extreme summer heat experienced this year, which was the warmest summer in the past 30 years.”

Hale said the majority of River Point Farms onions’ are shipped throughout the United States and all provinces in Canada. Some onions are also moved into Mexico.

Stefan Matheny, director of sales and procurement, said onions are marketed under the “River Point Farms,” “Hermiston Sweets” and “Hermiston SweetReds” labels. “We are in the middle of our season on Hermiston Sweets and SweetReds onions,” he stated. “These onions provide the consumer with a multitude of options in their kitchens for the holidays, both in a form for fresh use or for cooked use.”

In addition to its conventional product, River Point Farms can source organic onions from a third party to meet customer demand.