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Several years ago, Peri & Sons Farms, the Yerington, Nevada-based onion specialist started adding organic acreage to the point that the firm now has the ability to offer its own organic onions on a year-round basis, or at least 11-months of the year.
“We are a grower/packer/shipper that produces and sells our own organic onions 11 months of the year,” said Cindy Elrod, who is involved in sales and new business development for the company. “And we source product from partners during April, the one month we are not in production.”
Nevada is the source of Peri & Sons onions from September through March. The company then shifts to California with farms in the southern desert near El Centro and in the Central Valley community of Firebaugh. These farms produce onions from April through October.
Peri & Sons offers a full assortment of organic white, yellow, red, and sweet onions. It also offers its proprietary “Sweetie Sweet” onion in an organic option. When need be, it purchases onions from grower-partners to fill the gap between the end of the Nevada deal and the beginning of production in California’s Imperial Valley.
Elrod said Peri & Sons made a commitment to organic production and have jumped in with both feet. In fact, the company grows many other organic vegetables on the land as part of its crop rotation. To market and ship that production, Peri & Sons collaborated with The Nunes Company in Salinas, CA, to build the Walker River Cooling facility in Nevada. It’s a state of the art facility and the first of its kind in Nevada. Peri handles the growing of the organic vegetables while Nunes, a vegetable specialist, handles sales and marketing of those non-onion organic crops.
As far as its onions are concerned, each one is hand-harvested and hand-packed, which Elrod said makes for a superior presentation. The harvesting method, she said, results in fewer roots and a very clean, bright onion. She also claims that shelf life is improved.
Currently, and throughout the year, Elrod said Peri & Sons commitment to organic production has created a great marketing situation for retailers. While organic onions do command a premium in the marketplace, she said availability, at least from her firm, should not be a problem. Though March, all of Peri’s organic onions will be coming from storage in Nevada and there are good supplies still remaining.
Elrod said Peri & Sons is well positioned to meet the growing demand for organic onions as it continues to add acreage. And she noted, that its production of other organic vegetables is growing right along with it.
