Potandon Produce Showcases New Vidalia Onion Packaging

Potandon Produce has updated its Green Giant Vidalia Onion carton for the 2017 shipping season. Last season, Potandon updated its consumer bag, which had a visible impact on the retail shipping community, prompting the update to the master case. 

Potandon’s main shipping point for Green Giant Vidalia onions is Ray Farms, owned and managed by Danny Ray, second-generation grower and previous winner of the Vidalia Grower of the Year (2012.) He feels positive about the 2017 crop from an agronomic standpoint and says his fields are healthy with 100-percent stand through the growing season, and that quality looked excellent. This season, in addition to the Vidalia sweet onion, consumers can load sweet red onions at Ray Farms. 

 “We’re seeing yields increased over last season in the 15-20 percent range and there are plenty of onions available from the Vidalia region,” says Ralph Schwartz, vice president of sales. “The increased yields are the direct result of an exceptionally mild growing season, with no major weather events.”

Over the next three weeks, Potandon will ship onions from the field, afterwards moving to shipping from storage right around June 1. The current crop profile is 30 percent medium-sized and 70 percent jumbo and larger sizes. Demand is expected to increase significantly over the next few weeks as Memorial Day nears.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Vidalia onion trademark. Vidalia onions are the state of Georgia’s No. 1 vegetable commodity and are a major contributor to the state’s economy, according to company officials.