Renovation Doubles Onion Processor’s Output

Gills Onions of Oxnard, a leading processor of fresh whole peeled and diced onions, recently completed a $1.2-million renovation that has more than doubled the company’s output.

By adding six automated peeling machines to the four it already operated, the company now is capable of peeling and processing up to 25,000 pounds of onions per hour, up from 10,000 pounds per hour before the upgrade, said Gretchen Pereira, the company’s sales and marketing manager.

About 90% of the vegetables processed by Gills comes from Rio Farms, which has 2,000 acres of onions spread across Oxnard, King City and the Imperial Valley. Gills Onions was originally the processing arm of the Rio Farms operation, before breaking off on its own in 1983, Pereira said.

“We do anywhere from one-half million pounds per week to a little over a million pounds per week depending on the time of year,” she said. “The summer season is when we really go gangbusters.”

Pereira said the busy season coincides with the tomato harvest.

“Canneries are a major part of our business, with the salsa trend,” she said. “Fresh onions are a major ingredient in salsas.”

Pereira said the fresh onion-salsa connection has helped increase Gill’s processing business by 30% each year for the past 12 years. Ron Voss, director of vegetable research for the University of California system, said he’s not surprised.

“Whole peeled onions are part of the boom in the demand for convenience food for both home consumption and the institutional restaurant trade,” he said. “In the last five or six years, we’ve really seen an increase. The whole salsa thing itself, which includes peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, is just another step toward spending less time in the kitchen, but still having quality produce.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that Americans consumed 16.7 pounds of fresh onions per capita in 1995, up from 15.1 pounds per person in 1990. In comparison, consumption of fresh onions in 1974 was 11.2 pounds per capita.