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merchandising review sweet onions
66 / APRIL 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
with Potandon Produce LLC, Idaho Falls, ID. “Every year, as more and more people become familiarized, certainly with the efforts of the Vidalia Onion Committee to get people to try sweet onions, the popularity is now spreading to the other times of the year.”
The category is trending. “Instead of being seasonal, you have to have them all the time,” says John Vlahandreas, national onion sales director of the Idaho Falls, ID-based Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC. “With more and more information out there, the sweet onion section is getting a little bigger. We are starting to see more space toward sweet onions.”
Because sweet onions possess shorter shelf lives than storage onions, retailers can leverage sweet onions’ popularity by highlighting the “fresh” factor, says Rene Hardwick, director of public and industry relations for the National Onion Association (NOA), Greeley, CO. “We think all onions are great for retail sales. Sweet, or spring fresh onions, as they’re also called, add one more element to the year-round offer- ings.” Hardwick recommends displaying sweet onions with springtime recipes or providing how-to videos from QR codes on the recipes, which can be displayed with the onions.
“Sales of sweet onions continue to outper- form years prior,” says Mike Blume, director of sales and marketing for Keystone Fruit Marketing, which is based in Greencastle, PA. “Sweet onion sales represent about one-third of the entire onion category sales. The future of sweet onions is bright. Onions are one of the most purchased vegetables. There are no signs of that changing anytime soon.”
There are plenty of choices, too. “No one variety of sweet onion is ‘best’ in terms of shape or flavor,” says Teri Gibson, director of marketing and customer relations for Peri & Sons Farms, Inc., which grows and ships Sweetie Sweet-branded sweet onions from Yerington, NV. “Each offers a unique consumer experience, which is the most important thing, right? This means the category has a unique opportunity to refresh the merchandising and messaging every few months throughout the year. New season, new onions, new story. It can stay fresh all year long. Onions are the common denominator in most all recipes.”
COLOR PALETTE
Retailers also should note sweet onions’ color. “Sweet onions don’t just come in yellow,” says Derrell Kelso, Jr., manager of Onions Etc., based in Stockton, CA. Kelso’s favorite sweet onion is the Stockton — Fresno flat Italian sweet. “It’s the red wine of the onion category,” he says. “Retailers who do