Tim Feit, executive director, and Linda Prehn, chairperson of United Cranberry Growers Cooperative in Wausau, WI, spoke with The Produce News in early September to announce the initiatives of the new and fast growing organization.

New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher and Patricia Dombroski, regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Service Mid-Atlantic Region, joined a panel of middle and high school students, school district officials and other dignitaries at Secaucus High/Middle School in Secaucus, NJ, in sampling new school lunch menu items that meet healthier federal guidelines enacted this school year.

Members of Certified Onions Inc. will test 75 percent of onions produced in the Treasure Valley this season. President Kay Riley, who is also general manager of Snake River Produce Co. in Nyssa, OR, said Central Produce Distributors is the latest company to join the organization’s ranks. “We now have 25 members,” Mr. Riley told The Produce News Sept. 6.

Early-season onion demand has been good and movement heavy for Snake River Produce in Nyssa, OR, according to General Manager Kay Riley.

Mr. Riley told The Produce News during the first week of September that first loads had gone out Aug. 14, “about a week ahead of normal.”

He said, “Quality is good, despite a very hot and dry summer.”

Rail shipments of cured onions were expected to begin mid-month, and Mr. Riley said he sees a repeat of 2011’s rail volume.

Reflecting on a late start for the Treasure Valley’s onion season in both 2010 and 2011, John Wong, president of Champion Produce Sales in Parma, ID, said this year’s harvest and shipping are “on schedule for a normal year.”

Summer heat is expected to cause some reduction in onion sizing for Ontario Produce, headquartered in Ontario, OR. Sales Manager Bob Komoto said weather presented its own set of challenges during 2012. “Early in the season after planting, there was hail and wind that thinned several fields and force some replanting,” he told The Produce News on Sept. 4. “The early part of summer was ideal. But in the latter part of July and early August we had seven to 10 days of over 100-degree weather. That aged the crop and probably will cause some size reductions.”