In the first year of digital publication, OnionBusiness.com has worked hard to provide our readers with timely crop and market updates and also with concise, accurate and interesting insider stories about the onion industry.
We’ve spoken with industry members across the country in our effort to present the whole picture about growing regions, about technology and about where the industry is headed.
So here’s a quick look back at some of the news and features we’ve brought you since our web site went live on June 11 and our first weekly newsletter was sent out on Thursday, Aug. 6. We hope you enjoy what you find on our pages and in our newsletter, and, as always, we welcome your comments and contributions.
It was a challenge to narrow our 2015 selection of story highlights to 10, but here goes:
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OnionBusiness.com went live on June 11, and our first profile came from our interview with Bob Sakata, an icon in the industry and an inspiration to everyone who meets him. Bob took a leap of faith and gave us his great story to share.
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OnionBusiness.com’s first trade show coverage began at the PMA Foodservice Show in Monterey, CA. For our inaugural newsletter on Aug. 6, we were very pleased to run a story on Gills Onions after interviewing Steve and David Gill at the show.
Gills Onions says ‘nothing better than face to face’
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Our Aug. 20 newsletter brought you some good news out of Colorado’s San Luis Valley, where Aspen Produce had put in a test plot of onions. The onions, we’re glad to follow up and tell you, did great, and Jed Ellithorpe and Jake Burris are looking at commercial production in the not-too-distant future.
Aspen Produce looking at San Luis Valley onions
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Although the primary focus of OnionBusiness.com is U.S. handlers, we brought you a story in the Sept. 3 newsletter about world markets. The info came from a Bayer CropScience Field Day near Roswell, ID, and Jeff Boettge of Bayer told us that there’s speculation a steady decrease in farm laboring has resulted in onions “left to burn in the fields.” As a result, much of China’s onions, 85 percent of which are hybrid, are staying in that country rather than being exported, and other Asian markets such as Japan and Taiwan will be looking to other resources, including the United States, for onion supplies. Interesting stuff.
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Weather events are always big news, and on Oct. 29 the newsletter contained up-to-date info on the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia and her spawn in S. Texas. We’re working to keep abreast of El Niño and other factors that could come to bear on the 2016 fields.
Some Texas fields see temporary planting delay after Patricia
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Nov. 16 was a special run of our newsletter with the breaking news from the FDA and its long-awaited posting of the final rule in the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption segment of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
FDA posts final rule of Standards for Growing, Harvesting, Packing, Holding
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We followed up in our regularly scheduled Nov. 19 newsletter with industry reaction to the final rule. In that Nov. 19 post we also ran a great story on a Colorimetric Sweet Onion Test Kit, which provides 30-minute test results showing the sweetness/pungency of onions, is now in limited production at Oregon State University and available through on line or phone purchase from Oregon State University. This is one of those stories that makes us smile.
How sweet it is! OSU-developed kit makes short work of determining sweetness
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Another feel-good story is that from the Dec. 10 newsletter, which looks at Michelle Gurda and A. Gurda Produce. Michelle is the fifth generation of a farming operation in Pine Island, NY, and her great story about love of what she does and the integration of social media into her marketing strategy was the inspiration for our new Millennial profile segment on OnionBusiness.com.
Social media a valuable tool for onion marketing
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Speaking of social media, we found another Pine Island onion wiz, Brennan Sobriech, and his You Tube videos along with some other great onion videos to be the perfect Merry Christmas card on Dec. 17.
Social media, Take II: Pine Island YouTube harvest videos make you wanna buy onions!
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Our crop and market updates began with that first newsletter, with reports from industry experts across the country. We’ve heard from readers that our “freshness” is one of the aspects of OnionBusiness.com they like best. Thanks for that encouragement, and any time you’d like to weigh in, feel free to contact Sherise Jones at 208-741-2381 or via email at sherise@onionbusiness.com.
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And now it’s on to more news-gathering and working to keep you informed about what brings us all together – onions! Happy 2016, and let us know how we’re doing.