Vidalia season shaping up as ‘surprisingly’ normal for Roberson Onion Co.
Vidalia season shaping up as ‘surprisingly’ normal for Roberson Onion Co.
Steve Roberson of Roberson Onion Co. in Hazlehurst, GA, is expecting a “normal” Vidalia season, which is a good thing — he and the rest of the area growers and shippers have almost forgotten what normal is.
“We’ve got a good, normal crop, but it’s hard to say which is normal now: what we’ve experienced the last three years or the previous five before that,” Roberson said.
After five years of near-perfect growing conditions, the last three Vidalia seasons brought challenges ranging from downy mildew to untimely freezes. This season started off with torrential rains during planting times in November and December and into January with temperatures well above normal — hardly ideal conditions for Vidalias.
Somehow, “there’s surprisingly little effect from it,” Roberson said. “Everything looks good. This crop looks to be somewhere between what we’ve had the last three years and the previous five before that. We looked at a few thousand acres of onions (March 9) in the belt and everything we saw has great color, very healthy looking, growing well, good root system, no apparent disease, very good tops, maturity date probably earlier than last year by a few days — I expect an adequate supply of good quality Vidalia onions this year. Promotable quantities.”
Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black has set April 25 as the official start date to the Vidalia season, but Roberson and others say the crop will likely be ready well before that date.
“Apirl 25 is the tentative opening date, but that’s subject to change based on the recommendation of the committee that reports to the commissioner — there is some flexibility there, there is a possibility it would be a few days earlier. I think that we’ll have Vidalia onions ready by the 15th and we’ll start shipping them when the commissioner lets us.”
With sweet onion crop loss in Texas, the market is high heading into Vidalia season but Roberson cautions that “you can never tell what Mexico’s going to be coming out with. But it appears like it will be a good market.”
Roberson’s 12-month deal provides customers with sweet onions from Vidalia, Texas, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Nevada, Florida and Washington state, as well as red, yellow and white onions.
The company began a sweet potato program four years ago and the year-round deal continues to grow, with all product coming from Georgia and North Carolina.
“We’re strengthening our business,” Roberson said. “I got a list of the 10 best foods yesterday and number one was sweet potatoes. Everybody’s gotten to know them as a superfood so consumption continues to increase.”
