Garlic, onion plant in Fresno County closing; 275 workers to lose jobs

Hundreds of employees at a major garlic and onion processing plant near Firebaugh in western Fresno County will be out of work by the end of August, according to a layoff and closure notice filed with the state.

Olam Group, which operates the ofi (the acronym stands for Olam Food Ingredients) plant on Nees Avenue about 10 miles west of Firebaugh, filed a layoff notice with the California Employment Development Department for the layoff of 275 employees by Aug. 30.

The June 28 notice, required under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act, indicates that the layoffs will be the result of the permanent closure of the dehydrating plant.

Management at the Olam dehydrating plant could not be reached Friday for comment.

A garlic and onion industry analyst told The Bee on Friday that word of the plant shutdown was starting to filter out into the community. “This is going to come as a shock to a lot of growers,” said the analyst, who did not want to be identified because he works closely with companies. “They were one of the major players for dehydrating onions in the state.”

Fresno County is the leading producer of garlic in California, with more than 23,200 acres harvested in 2022, the most recent data available from the Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. At a value of almost $352 million, garlic was the county’s ninth most valuable crop in 2022.

Onions represented a harvested acreage of 10,780 acres in Fresno County with a value of about $79 million in 2022.

The analyst said the only other major onion dehydrator in the San Joaquin Valley is Sensient Natural Ingredients in Turlock. The company processes peppers, onions, garlic and vegetables. But the person wasn’t certain whether Sensient would be able to handle the share of the crops that would otherwise be processed in Firebaugh, and Sensient officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

In a market update for the second quarter of 2024, ofi reported that garlic acreage across the U.S. for the 2024 crop was down about 7% to 10% compared to 2023, but that inventory levels “are sufficient to meet domestic demand but at higher prices.

Similarly, the nationwide acreage of onions was down about 15% to 20% compared to 2023., with the harvest about 15% completed as of mid-June.

The formerly closed De Francesco & Sons Inc. dehydrating plant was purchased in late 2008 by Olam International, a Singapore-based food supplier with plans to reopen it in 2009.

Property records indicate that Firebaugh LLC., a subsidiary of Olam, owns more than 290 acres across eight parcels, including the plant and surrounding farmland. Buildings comprise more than 510,000 square feet on the site.

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