...The campaign, "Shrek Forever After, Vidalias Forever Sweet," was unveiled this spring in conjunction with the release of the flick and the start of the Vidalia season, which stretches to September. The onion association's partnership with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA - News) uses the movie's characters on packaging, store displays and on a website.
Through June 14, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, farmers had shipped eight million more pounds of Vidalias than by the same date last year—though the 2010 season started two weeks later than in 2009. "We've sold more onions up to this point in the season than we ever have in the past," says Brian Stanley of Stanley Farms, a large Vidalia grower...