Growing appeal: Getting under the skin of West Cork’s onion business

There are now more onions being grown in Cork than anywhere else in Ireland, and a West Cork company has just completed a €400,000 investment in its specialist premises in Bandon

NEXT time you’re enjoying that weekend fry-up, resplendent with unbeatable local pudding, or dipping into that tasty relish on a cracker or sandwich, savour the flavour. It’ll have that taste of home.

One of the key ingredients, the humble onion, has probably been harvested just a few miles down the road.

There are now more acres of onions grown in Co Cork than anywhere else in the country, with growers like Castlecor and West Cork Veg Solutions leading the way.

Growing onions in the heart of West Cork is Eamon Crowley, who runs West Cork Veg Solutions, which has just completed a €400,000 investment in its onion processing facility in Bandon. From small beginnings, Eamon now employs 12 people at Cloughmacsimon Business Park.

Eamon is from a farming background, and grew up on a dairy farm near Ahiohill, near Ballineen.

Eamon worked for Bandon Co-Op before branching out to grow onions commercially in 2012. ‘It’s been a “growing” business since,’ jokes Eamon.

From small beginnings, West Cork Veg Solutions, also known as The Irish Onion Company, is now supplying some of the most trusted and prized brands in Ireland, supplying onions as ingredients. These include companies like Clonakilty Black Pudding, Ballymaloe Fine Foods, Folláin in Ballyvourney,  Spice O’Life in Dunmanway and Ballineen Fine Foods.

 ‘Our local customers are very important to us, and we also supply to other parts of the country like Waterford, Wexford, Dublin, and Galway,’ says Eamon.

Eamon is leasing land in Clonakilty and Ballineen to cater for  his growing needs.

‘We started in 2018, and we had 20 acres, then we increased to 25 acres in 2020, 28 acres in 2021, then 40 acres and now 50 acres. It’s getting bigger all the time.’

Currently Eamon grows 14 acres of winter crop and 36 acres of spring crop. All of the winter crop are white onions, while 32 acres of the spring crop are for whites with eight for red.

‘Our customers choose us as our onions have excellent flavour,’ says Eamon.

Setton is the white onion variety grown in West Cork while Romy is a red variety grown here, both using seeds from France. The onions grown here are chosen as they are well suited to Ireland’s traditional temperate climate.

Nevertheless they require care and attention during growth.

If the onions are left too long before harvesting, they can be affected by issues like staining, humidity, and weeds. Hence Eamon has been busy between the showers to harvest winter crops.

 ‘Our winter crop which was planted last October should have been harvested two weeks ago, but we’ve just had so much rain in July. We’re trying to take every window we have now, we’re out in the field on every dry day trying to harvest.’

The onions commercially grown by the Irish Onion Company are all harvested, peeled, cleaned, packed, and ready for use as ingredients when they leave for delivery. Specialist equipment only suitable for onions is used for the harvesting and peeling.

Onion yields can vary considerably each year, and Eamon bolsters his harvest with imported onions when necessary. 

Aisling Crowley helping her dad Eamon at Ballinascarthy. (Photo: Denis Boyle)

 ‘Unfortunately, there’s no choice,’ says Eamon Crowley, who says the period from Easter to June is the tightest for Irish onions.

He says that a variety of factors – from unseasonable weather to the war in Ukraine – have affected supply issues globally; yields are way back in Europe due to later planting due to unseasonable weather, while many European growers have switched to cereal crops.

This will mean some of the world’s biggest onion producers like the Netherlands will have reduced their yields considerably again in 2023.

Ireland also found itself at the mercy of the weather. ‘In March we had 275mm of rain in 24 days in Clonakilty,’ explains Eamon. ‘We had planted four acres of onions in Ballineen and we lost two of them.’

Eamon’s spring crop this year was planted six weeks late due to inclement weather, but will be harvested in September. Long-term, he envisages having supplies to match his demand all-year round, and that will reduce or end the need to fall back on imported onions.

It’s likely consumers will be able to buy onions grown by West Cork Veg Solutions in their local supermarket in the near future. ‘In the long term I would expect to see our onions on supermarket shelves but we want to establish what we have. We try to focus on continuous improvement, it’s small steps.’