Idaho-Oregon growers see 20 percent increase in sales to Mexico

By SEAN ELLIS

Capital Press

MEXICO CITY -- Idaho's trade mission to Mexico served to bolster a promotion that has resulted in significantly more onions from Idaho and Oregon being sold in that country.

In 2001 the Idaho State Department of Agriculture launched a promotion of western yellow onions in Mexico. The program is funded by the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association, a non-profit organization that promotes the export of agricultural products from 13 western states.

Supermarket chain Soriana, Mexico's second-largest retailer, has been one of the program's main partners.

This year's promotional activities coincided with an Idaho trade delegation's Dec. 8 visit to a Soriana superstore in Mexico City, where Idaho and Oregon onions took center stage in displays and taste-testing booths.

Having the delegation there was helpful for the promotion, said Marco Albarran, commercial director for Mexican company Imalinx, which manages the promotion for WUSATA.

"Soriana has supported the WUSATA program a lot and it was very helpful to have those two supporters of the program there together," he said.

According to ISDA officials, the goal of the program is to build consumer acceptance of yellow onions because Mexican consumers have traditionally favored the white onions grown domestically.

Albarran said Mexican consumers have begun to accept and in some regions favor yellow onions, and the program has increased the volume of Idaho-Oregon onion sales to Mexico by almost 20 percent.

"Our consumer is open to these new varieties because they are sweeter than Mexican onions," he said. "And consumers in north Mexico actually favor the yellow onion because of its taste."

The onion promotion includes activities designed to inform the Mexican consumer about yellow onions, including displays, recipe cards, brochures, magazine inserts and product sampling.

While sales increased only moderately during the first several years of the program, they took off in 2005. According to ISDA, the amount of onions shipped from Idaho and eastern Oregon increased from 600,000 pounds during the 2005-06 shipping season to 8 million pounds the following year.

While sales of Idaho-Oregon onions in Mexico increased by 20 percent in 2010 over the previous year, they were negatively affected by low prices for Mexican onions. But, according to ISDA Trade Specialist Katlin Davis, that country has a limited crop this year because of drought conditions, which have resulted in high domestic prices that should result in a higher volume of U.S. yellow onions being sold in the Mexican market.

Alejandra Taylor, head of export sales for Eagle Eye Produce in Idaho, said the amount of her company's onion sales to Mexico depends heavily on market prices in that country and decline when domestic prices are low.

But when prices are high and the market is favorable to the U.S. crop, "the opportunities to send onions to Mexico are very exciting," she said.