Vidalia Vet Bob Stafford Named Vidalia Onion Committee Manager

Bob Stafford, the longtime manager of the Vidalia Onion Business Council, has been selected to manage the Vidalia Onion Committee. Stafford, who has managed the Vidalia, GA-based council since 1994, was formally made manager by the committee's board of directors in late May when Susan Waters, who had been executive director since 2013, announced her retirement.

Stafford says the board contracted him to manage the committee and says he is not an interim director. Though the board of directors hasn't formally started a national search for an executive director, it plans to seek one but hasn't decided the qualifications it will seek when that search begins, says Stafford. The committee hadn't officially announced Stafford's addition because it wanted to decide how to handle the search, which could start later, he says. 

“I'm just adding this to my duties,” says Stafford, the council's first and only manager. Stafford plans to continue leading the council. “I came on just to help them work with a compliance plan, which was supposed to be 10 days,” he says. “I stayed 24 years.” Before joining the council, the northern Florida native worked for 34 years as an East Coast fruit and vegetable inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. 

As council manager, Stafford works as a liaison between Vidalia growers and the Georgia Department of Agriculture. He also works to protect the onion's trademark. About 100 growers in 20 southeast Georgia counties are registered to grow and harvest Vidalia onions. This year, the industry packed 6 million 40-pound cartons from 12,000 acres, similar to the previous season. 

Sweet onions represent 27% of total onion sales and Vidalias are the leading sweet onion. Stafford says he expects the deal to expand even more. “Our percentage of the sweet onion category is picking up every year and I see us getting an even bigger percentage of the sweet onion category in the future,” he says. “We are gaining because we are putting out better quality.” 

Stafford grew up on a truck farm in Raiford, FL, and after high school, worked as an agricultural agent. In 2010, he was inducted into the committee's Vidalia Onion Hall of Fame and was recognized for his “exemplary service, support and loyalty to the Vidalia onion industry.”

Source: PerishableNews.com