This year, members of Certified Onions will test approximately 75 percent of onions produced in the Treasure Valley. “We have 25 members,” said President Kay Riley, who is also general manager of Snake River Produce Co. in Nyssa, OR. Roughly 15,000 acres of onion-producing land is held by the organization’s membership.

Certified Onions Inc. is a nonprofit organization. Members voluntarily undergo stringent testing for off-label pesticide use and maximum residue levels. Third-party auditing is performed at both the field and shed levels.

First loads of new-crop direct-seeded Spanish Sweets started shipping Aug. 4 for Owyhee Produce in Nyssa, OR, and company General Manager Shay Myers said the onions have developed well with a good profile.

“The wild card at this time,” he said Sept. 4, “is when and how many will go into storage.”

Myers said the Aug. 4 start is not the earliest for Owyhee, but it was about a week early for direct-seeded.

“We are seeing phenomenal quality for early onions,” he said. “We have a good size profile and skin quality. It’s really as good as we’ve ever had.”

New-crop Spanish Sweet onions started shipping from Fort Boise Produce in Parma, ID, in the first week of August, earlier than most years, and Sales Manager Ashley Robertson said on Sept. 2 both quality and size were looking good.

“We’re confident about our size this year,” Robertson said of onions going out the door and those that would be coming into storage as harvest proceeds.

Early indications showed Snake River Produce’s 2014 Spanish Sweet crop to be of a smaller size profile, but in early September Tiffany Cruickshank, transportation manager and sales/marketing assistant of the Nyssa, OR, operation, told The Produce News that the onions were of excellent quality.

“Compared to last year at this point, we are seeing smaller size but much better quality,” Cruickshank said.

With its comprehensive reference source that looks at virtually every aspect of USA Onions’ Spanish Sweets, the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee has provided buyers with an invaluable “tool kit” for the 2014-15 shipping season.

The publication, which was released in July prior to the onset of this year’s harvest, is a high-graphic, 44-page compilation of detailed sizing information, prep tips, yield charts and a complete list of IEOOC shippers.

On Aug. 26, Oregon State University’s Malheur Experiment Station held its 2014 Onion Variety Field Day. Director Clinton Shock said growers and the general public were invited to find out more about the status of this year’s research and ways in which the work can have a positive impact on the region’s onion production.

“One hundred fifty people came to the Experiment Station,” said Shock.