GLENNVILLE, GA - Once consumers get their hands on a Vidalia® Sweet Onion, retailers and foodservice operators have loyal customers for life. With the amazing 2024 season that the current crop has experienced, there are more loyal Sweet Onion lovers than ever before. As Delbert Bland, Owner of Bland Farms and recent inductee into the prestigious Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame, tells me, the opportunities for the category are extending well into September for customers.

“This year’s crop has been excellent. We were blessed with perfect growing conditions that produced great-quality Vidalia Sweet Onions,” Delbert shared with me on his morning drive in Georgia. “Because of the high production, we were able to put a lot of onions into storage. And, with the cutting-edge technology we use to store them, they are coming out of storage with the same quality and eating experience as when they went in. It has been a great year for the category.”

With this hallmark year, customers can expect Bland to ship till the end of September, when the company will offer a smooth transition to sweet onions from Peru.

“This year, the Peru crop looks excellent,” Delbert detailed, having just arrived back from a visit to the growing operations there. “Last year was a short crop due to weather challenges, but this year we anticipate no problems at all.”

Delbert also shared that this season, volume per store and sales seem to be up, and overall, they have been very good.

“People clamor for a great quality sweet onion, which creates its own market,” Delbert says. “Combined with our dedicated customer service tenets, sales and marketing support, and intel, our program is built to succeed.”

As Delbert and I hung up the phone and we both launched into our mornings, I could already smell Vidalia Sweet Onions cooking up in households everywhere—and heating up the produce department as well.