With harvest expected to wrap up in mid-October, Golden West Produce — one of the hardest hit onion shippers in the Treasure Valley during the devastating January snow and ice storms — met its anticipated start date of Sept. 1 for new crop onion shipments. It is operating at its new packing shed and office facility in Parma, ID.

Sales are being handled by ProSource Inc. of Hailey, ID, and according to Bernie Pavlock, director of sales at ProSource, the new Golden West facility is not only bigger but also far more technologically advanced than the former site in Nyssa, OR. That facility was lost in “Snowmageddon,” a series of storms that pounded the Treasure Valley in January and caused dozens of structural collapses across the region.

Pavlock said, “The new packing facility is three times larger than the facility lost in Snowmageddon, but more significant are the changes to the packing capabilities and refrigerated storage. The new packing line will custom pack onions for every customer, with options for retail and foodservice.”

The packing line was “designed to be flexible,” and Pavlock said, “Golden West can provide any pack for retail or foodservice, including bulk bags and boxes of any size, RPCs, PLU stickered onions and 2-, 3-, 5- and 10-pound consumer packs.”

He added that new temperature controlled raw onion storages would allow shipments of onions later in the spring. State-of-the-art raw product and finished product equipment has been incorporated into the design of the packing and storage facility, which will allow packing to continue during all weather conditions.

Treasure Valley as a whole is seeing a later crop due to the winter storms and a cold, wet spring that kept growers out of the fields. However, Golden West President Troy Seward broke ground on the new facility earlier this year with the expectation to be operational at the season’s onset — and it was.

“Golden West had one field under water, and it wasn’t planted,” Pavlock said. “Other acreage was found to replace what couldn’t be farmed this season.”

Earlier in the season Pavlock said that Seward had worked really hard to put together the new Golden West packing facility and storage buildings. “Troy has been working to get that facility ready for the season while spending an equal amount of time making sure the crop is in excellent condition for harvest,” Pavlock said.

On Sept. 1 Pavlock reported that “quality looks excellent, and there are plenty of jumbos in the crop. There will be colossals and super colossals but not an oversupply.” The mix of colors has remained steady over the years, with the volume 80 percent yellows, 15 percent reds and 5 percent whites.

During the growing season, ProSource launched its promotional efforts, with a “Seeding Series” video series. A harvest series was released as the onions start coming in. Pavlock said the onion operation provides product equally to retail and foodservice market segments, and process grade is contracted.

ProSource Inc. will exhibit in Booth 5010 at PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans.