Bulk onions marketed by grower-shippers in Washington and Oregon typically outsell packaged product, but they say consumer packs have been steadily gaining traction.
“Consumers love the convenience of prepackaged onions,” said Joe Ange, director of onion sales for Eagle Eye Produce, Idaho Falls, Idaho.
“It saves them the hassle of selecting and measuring quantities, making shopping quicker and easier,” he said. “They also appreciate the familiarity and trust that comes with seeing a consistent, branded label in stores.”
Retailers find packaged onions easier to merchandise than bulk onions, Ange said.
“The uniform packaging makes for attractive, organized displays that are easy to restock,” he said.
Consistent labeling also speeds up the checkout process, helps maintain brand recognition and simplifies inventory management, he added.
Eagle Eye Produce offers a range of packaging options for its onions, from 1-pound bags for individual consumers to 50-pound sacks designed for bulk buyers and foodservice providers.
“Our 3- and 5-pound midsized bags are particularly popular for their convenience and consistent quality,” Ange said.
Some supermarkets have found that they can use the “charisma of having a bunch of colossals or jumbos” in a bulk display to spur purchases of consumer packs, said Bill Bloxom, an owner of Seattle-based F.C. Bloxom.
Larger onions attract shoppers’ attention in a merchandising bin, he said.
“As people get closer, and they’re in a hurry, they just grab a bag,” he said.
The company offers 40-pound cartons, master bags of 16 3-pound consumer packs, 10 5-pound consumer packs and reusable plastic containers. About 70% of its onions are sold in bulk cartons, and 30% go into consumer packs.
Demand for onion consumer packs actually began to increase prior to the pandemic, but it has continued during the post-pandemic period, said Molly Connors, vice president of sales and marketing for Basin Gold Cooperative, Pasco, Wash.
Basin Gold offers 50- and 25-pound units as well as 2-, 3-, 5 and 10-pound consumer packs, RPCs and Euro cartons.
“There’s not much we can’t do,” Connors said.
The co-op uses high-graphic packaging as a marketing tool on some of its smaller, high-end bags, she said.
All of the onions sold by Castoldi Family Farm, Walla Walla, Wash., are sold in bags, said Nathan Castoldi, an owner and operator. Sizes include 5-, 10-, 25 and 50-pounds.
Some sellers break up the 50-pound bags and merchandise the contents as bulk onions, he said. But many also are purchased by consumers who might share them with friends and neighbors or sometimes keep them all for themselves.
“If you can keep onions in a cool, dry place and out of the sun and get them out of the bag, you can make them last for a decent amount of time,” Castoldi said.
Sustainability focus
Sustainability is of growing concern when it comes to packaging.Eagle Eye Produce has felt an increase in pressure from consumers and retailers for sustainable packaging solutions, Ange said.
“The pandemic highlighted the importance of packaged produce, and now there is a strong push toward making those options more environmentally friendly,” he said. “We are actively exploring more sustainable packaging materials to meet those demands.”
F.C. Bloxom’s packaging material is PET 1 recyclable, Bloxom said.
“But it’s a question of what people do with it,” he said.
Recycling must be convenient for consumers if it’s going to be effective, he said.
Bloxom estimated that less than 10% of the company’s recyclable “bowling ball bags” are recycled by consumers.
Recyclable packages aren’t as strong as conventional packaging, so they’re subject to more damage as they’re moved around, said Steve Brennan, salesman at F.C. Bloxom.
Food safety and traceability often are more important to retailers than recyclability, he added.
“Traceability is big,” he said. “They want to make sure everything is traceable to its origin in case there’s a food safety issue.”
Basin Gold Cooperative has done some investigating into recyclable packaging, but there is a higher cost associated with it, which consumers and retailers are often reluctant to pay, Connors said.
“It’s a matter of getting the marketer, packer and consumer on the same page,” she said.
Castoldi Family Farm doesn’t receive many inquiries about the sustainability of its packaging, Castoldi said. But he added that sometimes consumers return the 50-pound bags for reuse.