Dave Hope has been named as the new chair of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) board.
Hope succeeds Suzanne van Bommel in the position after van Bommel’s recent resignation.
Hope is a retired assistant deputy minister of OMAFRA, and a former mixed livestock farmer.
He was raised on an eighth-generation farm in Ontario, said a release from OMAFRA.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Dave and am confident that with his knowledge and experience, Dave and the board will further advance the processing vegetable industry in Ontario,” said Ernie Hardeman, Ontario’s minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
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The chair of the board of directors of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers is currently appointed by the province, after it took over the operations of the organization in 2017, dismissing the elected grower board and appointed an administrator to run the operation.
New staff were eventually hired and in 2017, half of the grower board was elected. A board elected entirely by growers (other than the chair) is in place of the OPVG annual meeting on Thursday.
That meeting was closed to media, despite having been open in the past.
Van Bommel is now working for the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, which oversees Ontario farm marketing boards, as an analyst.
