Now in its fifth year, the sweet onion program at Snake River Produce continues to see good demand as it grows in volume.

The Nyssa, OR, onion packingshed will be shipping from its 50 acres of sweets this season, according to General Manager Kay Riley and Transportation Manager and Sales/Marketing Assistant Tiffany Cruickshank.

“The market is growing on a steady basis, and the Snake River Sweets have been well-received,” Riley said in late August. “We’re very optimistic about the program.”

Cruickshank noted that production of the sweets has increased annually, and this year the first loads will start shipping in mid-September.

“Last year we went to late February with the sweets,” she said, adding that the round sweet is a large onion with high yields.

“It’s milder than the Spanish Sweet,” she said. “Less pungent. The skin is a little lighter, too.”

Predominantly single-center, the Snake River Sweets cook well, and Cruickshank said it is becoming the preferred variety of Snake River’s processor customers.

“We’re seeing more of it go to retail as well,” she said. The majority of the sweets are shipped in 40-pound cartons, and each onion is individually stickered. Snake River also packs the sweets in consumer mesh bags.

As did the majority of Treasure Valley shippers, Snake River saw an early start to the season, which Riley said for his operation is “the earliest on record.”

He said, “We started bringing onions in during late July, and we’ve never done that before. We brought them in on July 31 and ran them on Aug. 4.”

Riley added that the shed had been “pretty busy, and we’ll start going into storage Sept. 9 or 10.”

Both Riley and Cruickshank said transportation thus far has been easier, and Riley commented, “This is the first time in my memory that we’ve had enough truck drivers for the number of trucks. We anticipate this will alleviate any extreme shortage.”

Cruickshank said the holidays will likely see a tightening in trucks with the shipments of nursery stock and Christmas trees out of the Northwest.

Still, for the time being transportation is going well, as is the transition from other growing areas to IEO.

“It was a bit difficult right at first,” Riley said of the deal’s movement. “California and New Mexico had gaps. Prices were high and demand was down for a while, but based on shipments for the last week, we’re on par for normal activity.”

He said Snake River’s early onions were going to the company’s normal customers, although some of the contract buyers don’t initiate shipments until September.

As for quality and size, Riley said overall size was down somewhat, with supers and colossals tighter. “We have more mediums, and we have a lot of jumbos.”

Quality is good, and Riley said, “We’re very excited for this early start and hope our production proves out.”

He also said the entire storage onion industry is “anxiously awaiting the final rule from the Food Safety Modernization Act. That proposed rule before the last comment period would work for us.”

That rule would re-categorize dry bulb storage onions apart from leafy greens.