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- Sweet Vidalia Onions fill niche
- By Karen Gentry
Managing Editor
- When consumers think of a sweet onion, the Vidalia Onion from Georgia comes to mind. It’s the most recognized sweet onion in the country, according to Tina Wheeler, executive director of the Vidalia Onion Committee.
What many growers may not realize is the Vidalia name is trademarked and owned by the Georgia Department of Agriculture. It is an example of a managed commodity that commands a premium price, often twice the cost of other onions in retail stores. It is a gourmet item that consumers demand, according to Wheeler.
“We are the only onion that is trademarked that has a designated area for the onion to be grown,” said Wheeler. The onion is grown on more than 14,000 acres by 130 growers in a 20-county area in Southeast Georgia - 13 full counties and portions of seven counties, Wheeler said. Growers produce an average of 300 (50-pound) bags per acre.
“Having our product trademarked gives us an edge,” she said. The onion was given legal status and the production area defined by Georgia’s state legislature in 1986. The Vidalia Onion Committee started in 1989 and is a federal marketing order, governed by the USDA. The committee was established to promote and research the Vidalia Onion. Growers are assessed per 50 pound units of onions shipped. This year $110,066 was budgeted for marketing and $20,000 for research by the committee.
“We do promote that it is a sweet onion. It’s grown to be eaten raw - a good salad onion,” said Wheeler. “If you’re looking for onion taste, it’s not a good cooking onion,” she said.
The Vidalia Onion Committee does a mix of consumer and retail advertising every year. Wheeler said many retailers like to make Vidalia onions the center-of-display separate from the other onions.
As the story goes the history of the Vidalia Onion started in Toombs County, Georgia more than 60 years ago. Mose Coleman, a farmer, discovered in 1931 that the onions he planted were not hot, as he expected. They were sweet. Coleman persevered and managed to sell the onions for $3.50 per 50-pound bag, which was a big price back then.
Soon other growers began to grow the sweet, mild onion. In the 1940s the state of Georgia built a farmers’ market in Vidalia, located at the juncture of some of South Georgia’s most widely traveled highways, Through word-of-mouth, consumers began requesting the Vidalia Onion.
Low sulfur and sandy loam soils, combined with the climate of Southeast Georgia creates the sweet taste, which can’t be grown in any area.
“There are 24 varieties that can be legally grown as Vidalias,” said Randy Hill, superintendent of the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research and Education Center near Lyons, Ga. The varieties are the yellow granex hybrid different from the grano types typically grown in the West. Grano varieties have round, spherical bulbs, while the bulbs of Granex varieties are flattened into more of an oval shape.
The research center does a lot of variety, nutrition and disease research, according to Hill.
Growers transplant the onions into the field around the Thanksgiving weekend and prefer to harvest around the first week of May, according to Wheeler.
Because quality seems to be a big concern the Georgia Department of Agriculture recently implemented an inspection program for the Vidalia onion. “Every onion has to be inspected before it is shipped,” said Wheeler. The onion must meet the grade standards or they do not go.
The Vidalia Onion does compete with other sweet onions in the country including the Texas 1015, “a sweet onion that comes out earlier than our onion,” Wheeler said.
Vidalia Onions are shipped throughout the United States and the biggest international customer is Canada, Wheeler said. Growers today might typically receive about $35 per 50-pound container. Growers negotiate their own prices with brokers and chain stores.
Wheeler said that growers’ acreage ranges from one-half acre to 1,200 acres of the onion, with a happy medium of 600-800 acres. Many Vidalia Onion growers also grow cotton, tobacco, grain and sweet corn.
After a typical harvest the last week of April, Vidalia Onions usually sell out by the end of October. CA storage technology, borrowed from the apple industry, extends the marketing season of Vidalia Onions past the summer months.
This year growers lost more than 50% of their crop to disease due to a late freeze. Wheeler said the onions planted a little later fared the best this year. “Climate is everything to our onions,” she said.
Georgia had an unusually warm fall that caused some onions to grow too fast. A late freeze on Feb. 28 burned the foliage on the larger, older onions causing disease, according to Reid Torrance, University of Georgia Extension agent from Tattnall County.
Hill said stemthylium leaf blight, a foliar disease caused by a pathogen, shut down the development of the bulb. Botrytis leaf blight and purple blotch can also cause problems, he said.
The Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research and Education Center, a pilot project, opened in 1999. Prison inmates are used at the center and perform tasks such as repairing equipment and harvesting and transplanting onions. The center includes 22 acres of research land and six acres of buildings and grounds. It’s a cooperative effort between the Georgia Department of Corrections, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Forestry Commission and the Vidalia Onion Committee.
Hill said he welcomes visitor to the research center and recommends visits at the end of February or early March when the onions are bulbing. The research center is located at 816B, Highway 178 in Lyons.
For more information contact the Vidalia Onion Committee at (912) 537-1918 or e-mail wheeler@cybersouth.com. Hill can be reached by calling (912) 282-4453.
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