According to the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG), there also continues to be high demand for processing tomatoes worldwide. 

Why it matters: Demand for tomato products remains high but global supplies are tight. 

Tom Keller, a Leamington-area tomato grower and board member with OPVG, says production in his area may not be as high as that seen during peak periods of the Heinz era, but “it is respectable.” 

Highbury Canco, the company that took over the Leamington Heinz processing facility, appears to be responding to continued consumer demand for tomato products. 

“They seem to have more contracts every year with vendors,” says Keller. “Worldwide, a lot of countries are struggling to get enough acres to fill their pack.” 

Part of the supply issue stems from lower incentives for growers to produce the commodity. Keller says there are generally lower returns for growers, particularly in California, in part because growers and processors negotiate directly. 

“This year all prices have gone up a bit for tomatoes, just to keep production going with existing growers… There’s no longer a list of growers waiting to grow tomatoes,” Keller says. He cites the potential for drought in California as a factor in wider supplies. 

Ron Vandamme, processing tomato grower from the Wallaceburg area and OPVG’s first vice-chair, also says the drought conditions in California and other areas has been putting downward pressure on global supplies. He says Ukraine is also a processing tomato producer of equivalent size to Ontario’s production, but a 2022 Ukraine crop is in doubt. 

Last year was challenging for many Ontario growers, Keller says, thanks in part to significant rainfall and heat events, but the industry is “usually pretty good at hitting the target.” 

Vandamme estimates this year’s production at 450,000 tonnes. Processors in the province have contracts for their desired volumes. 

“I think processors are looking forward to a good crop…certainly the demand is there. For the most part the negotiations went well,” says VanDamme. 

Keller adds that many growers negotiate their own contracts now rather than through the OPVG board. 

“The board is still involved in grading and acreage management along with the processors. The industry is still functioning well.”

The post Demand remains strong for processing tomatoes appeared first on Farmtario.

The March 30 session began with a general message of support from provincial agriculture minister Ernie Hardeman, in which he highlighted the provincial government’s plan to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for farm and food sector workers.

Why it matters: OPVG has seen several years of turmoil as its ability to negotiate on behalf of producers has been constrained.

A message of support was delivered by Amy Cronin, chair of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, the government arm that regulates farm marketing organizations. Her address included congratulations to OPVG’s board and membership for quickly and effectively adapting to tough circumstances in 2020, as well as thus far into 2021.

An updated structure

Cronin also emphasized the importance of forging new opportunities for Ontario processing vegetables by establishing stronger partnerships across the value chain. This is something she believes the OPVG board has made progress towards, also commending them for making important changes to governance and governance policy in an effort to foster “accountability and transparency.”

“Your board’s work on a new multi-year strategic plan will be crucial,” says Cronin, later encouraging the implementation of “a collaborative and inclusive” plan to account for the diversity of perspectives within the processing vegetable value chain.

Amendments to sections 440 and 441 of the Farm Products Marketing Act in 2019 drove changes to OPVG governance, operational, and other policies. One such change was the implementation of a new electronic voting process designed to promote greater participation by members.

According to Keith Robbins, general manager for OPVG, two years of using the system has not brought more widespread participation – indeed, numbers have actually dropped slightly. But Robbins says it still provides an effective way of documenting the governance process, and plans on fine-tuning the system when engaging the Farm Products Marketing Commission in the future.

Other changes involved updating bylaws and organizational minutia to reflect the updated regulations.

Unified lobbying

Dave Hope, chair for OPVG, says the relationship-building actions taken thus far have been driven, in part, by the need to more effectively engage the federal and provincial government on key policies and issues – notably labour and its associated pandemic-induced complications.

“Labour issues are exceedingly complicated as [growers] also have local departments of health that complicate matters,” says Hope.

More specifically, Robbins says OPVG has outsourced the handling of labour-related lobbying – as well as pesticide and wider regulatory policy lobbying – to the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

“They represent so many [parts of the sector], it just gives us that further reach on lobbying activities,” says Robbins.

“We need to make sure we have our messages coordinated.”

A “fairly productive” year

Financially, Hope reported a balanced budget. That budget included a reduction in fees placed on tomatoes and carrots, as well as continued investments in research projects. Hope says they are actively looking for financial contributions to research initiatives from other groups as well.

OPVG also extended “eat local” promotions to the Windsor area, and established a newsletter to better communicate research initiatives and other organizational updates to members.

Overall, Hope described 2020 as a “fairly productive year.” For 2021, and with regulatory adherence behind them, Robbins says the organization and its membership are determining the next five year strategic and business plans.

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Demand for processed tomato products jumped globally in 2020, lowering product inventories and peaking interest from both growers and processors. 

Whether higher demands will outlast the pandemic remains uncertain. But in the meantime, Ontario’s processing tomato sector is gearing up for a busy 2021 season. 

Why it matters: Increased demand from tomato processors means more acres in Ontario of the high-value crop.

In the Niagara region, Steve Lamour of Conagra Brands Canada Inc. says 2020 brought a “rocky start” to the season with a two-week planting delay. 

The season itself was an average one. Yields were typical, though no major disease issues were observed. However, heavy rainfall in some areas of Chatham-Kent had localized yield impacts. Frost did as well, particularly for later-planted tomatoes which struggled to ripen after Sept. 19. The harvest run as a whole lasted 55 days from its start in August. 

Average yields clocked in at 41.9 tons per acre – a number Lamour suggests would have been higher without frost-related losses. 

“We did not fully attain our peel-pack but we got close enough to carry us through into this season. It just didn’t give us our carryover inventory into this fall which is what we normally look for,” he says.

Lamour adds the additional expenditures required for worker safety – specifically new housing and personal protective equipment – were enormous. 

Processed tonnage exceeds contracts 

The area in and around Essex County experienced a largely problem-free growing season, albeit with a few exceptions. Speaking on behalf of Highbury Canco, Tim Suitor says they experienced the biggest yielding crop yet processed at the Leamington facility, since it was taken over from Heinz. 

Planting began mid to late May, and featured good overall establishment. The summer progressed without issues, though like Lamour, Suitor says heavy rains “really took the edge off” some fields. Later planted tomatoes thus struggled by comparison. 

Differences between irrigated and non-irrigated fields were also observed, in that the latter appeared to outpace the former. 

“I only had one big field in [Chatham-Kent] that was irrigated, and it looked like it was going to do 55, 58 tons to the acre, and it ended up doing 42,” he says. 

“I would never want to discourage our growers from using irrigation because that’s the difference between beautiful tomatoes and not beautiful tomatoes at times. But it was a very interesting situation this year where disappointing things came out of fields that had the highest inputs, and wonderful things came out of the fields that had the lowest inputs.”

In the end, yields reached an average of 47.5 tons per acre, and 165,000 tons were processed by the company – 10,000 tons over what was originally contracted. 

Despite this, and despite a general policy of significant product carryover from year to year, Suitor says their existing stocks are now low due to increased demand. As a consequence, production in 2021 is being raised to 200,000 tons. 

An additional 900 to 1000 acres of tomatoes will be required to accommodate the difference. Contracts have already been signed, and greenhouses supplying transplants are already aware growers will require another 10 million units. 

“The future is so bright we all need shades,” says Suitor. 

The global perspective

Lamour and Suitor were two of several individuals speaking during the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers’ virtual Tomato Day in late January. Pre-recorded sessions from two United States processors and the World Processing Tomato Council were also presented, all affirming a sharp increase in consumer demand. 

In the case of Indiana-based Red Gold Inc., that meant risking an earlier start to planting for a longer growing season – but like Ontario’s processors, inventory shortages were still reported. 

Questions of whether demand will soften as COVID-19 diminishes were also expressed, though conclusions cannot currently be drawn.

The post Demand surges for processing tomatoes appeared first on Farmtario.

However, the province’s recent proposals fail to provide the needed stability.

I’ve written numerous similar pieces over the past couple of years as the province tries to break the collective bargaining power of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers board (OPVG) and its growers. There have been many actions, followed by protests from farmers, followed by pull backs, followed by new proposals.

The board and most staff of the OPVG were dismissed almost two years ago and replaced by a trustee and eventually an appointed board of directors, which ran the organization until the board became fully elected again this fall (other than the chair).

Both Liberal and Conservative governments have taken on the board in an attempt to give more marketing power to processors.

Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) says that exports are down and opportunities are being wasted. However, processing tomato production has continued to climb and has almost reached the levels achieved before the dominant processor in the sector, Heinz, closed its plant in Leamington in 2013. Something is working.

Both sides in the dispute must realize that the comeback in processing tomato volume can be attributed to resilient producers efficiently growing tomatoes, and processors continuing to find new domestic and export demand. This is especially true for Highbury Canco, which bought the Leamington plant and continues to expand its processing business from that plant, including for Heinz finished products.

The processing vegetable sector is showing significant potential and it is profitable for farmers and processors.

There’s no doubt the far south end of Ontario is one of the best places to grow tomatoes and there are growers who are innovative enough to stay competitive in a world market.

Indeed the formula by which processing tomato pricing has been negotiated is based on the price in California, which automatically ensures Ontario tomatoes are competitive. If they’ve been woefully uncompetitive there would be no tomatoes grown for processing here. The processors say the inefficiency is in the collective bargaining system.

The current system works. However, if one party, the processors, refuse to use it, then there’s a tough impasse to be broken.

The most recent proposal by the province won’t do that. It’s a mushy attempt to create a middle road, which would allow producers to vote in a secret ballot whether they want to negotiate with processors directly, or collectively have a third-party adjudicator negotiate for them. The processors would have significant power over who makes up that third party adjudicator — it certainly won’t be the OPVG — and that means it’s highly unlikely that the test will be met to use the third party. It’s an unknown, but I expect the end result will be de facto open marketing.

It would have been better to have just quashed the OPVG’s marketing powers and moved on. That would have provided more clarity and ease of understanding to the process, instead of trying to find a mushy middle ground.

The fighting has been tough and dirty at times, including an anonymous smear campaign against a respected farm leader and an attempt to strip his family’s ability to grow tomatoes.

It’s obvious that the province, and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, which regulates marketing boards in the province, are determined to kill the collective marketing of processing tomatoes. This is the third time that a new regime has been proposed over the past couple of years and each time the proposal is more convoluted.

Someone needs to take a leadership role and open up the market. That’s the end game for the province, the OFPMC and the processors. Why prolong it and create market uncertainty?

Will we still have a processing tomato sector in Ontario after all this settles down? If the processors are smart, we will. We have growers who have shown that they can adapt and compete — look at the move to drip irrigation and the drainage and water control innovations adopted to make that happen — but they have to be able to make a good profit to justify investing in tomato equipment. Southern Ontario has the climate and the soil, as well as a history of processors that have been creative about finding markets, especially in Canada. They need to be better about finding markets around the world.

But first clarity on marketing is needed.

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The organization released a statement Dec. 18, the first comments made since Ernie Hardeman, Ontario’s minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs announced the latest in changes to OPVG marketing regulations last week.

The changes open choice for growers of processing tomatoes and carrots to choose via secret ballot whether they will negotiate with a processor collectively, or individually.

Historically, the OPVG has negotiated pricing on behalf of producers with processors for numerous processing vegetable crops. That will continue for crops other than carrots and tomatoes.

The OPVG says the process as set out would allow processors to choose growers they want to negotiate with.

The proposals set up contracts that will last three years.

“We have spent considerable hours assessing how the recently announced regulations will impact the tomato and carrot growers but also the impact to the other commodities we represent,” said Dave Hope, chair of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG). “We will need to analyze the regulation in detail to determine the depth of hurt to the sector. The largest impact is a reduction in collective bargaining power being removed from the growers’ elected representatives and handed to the processors.”

Hope was appointed chair of the board by Hardeman, replacing Suzanne Van Bommel who was appointed chair of the board after the elected board was dismissed by the previous Liberal government.

Farm gate sales for processing vegetables were just under $90 million in 2019.

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Ernie Hardeman, Ontario’s minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs released a letter Dec. 11 informing growers of the decision.

Why it matters: The decision will reduce the ability of farmers to collectively negotiate with processors for processing carrots and tomatoes.

The changes could be the final stage of a multi-year process from two different governments to try to put an end to collective grower negotiation of prices with processors of tomatoes. Over that time the board and staff of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers has been dismissed and replaced with appointees, then elected growers and changes to the way marketing occurs have been proposed several times.

Hardeman says in his letter the majority of tomato growers who responded to the posting of proposals on changing marketing, under Regulation 440, supported the move to direct marketing. He says processors also want change. He says he consulted with the sector over the summer.

“I met with carrot growers and heard that their biggest concern was the length of their contracts but given the small number of people involved in negotiations, the current regulations didn’t reflect the reality of how closely they worked together,” he said, which is why the processing carrot sector was also opened up to direct marketing.

The current system of group negotiation will continue for other processing vegetable growers for 12 other crops such as sweet corn, green peas, cauliflower, cabbage and squash.

“During my consultations, I was pleased to hear the marketing system continues to work well for those who grow and process processing vegetables other than tomatoes and carrots,” Hardeman said. “As such, only minor, targeted amendments have been made to improve the current negotiation framework for these commodities.”

Carrot and tomato growers, however, will have the option of voting to negotiate directly with processors either individually, as a group of growers or through a negotiating agency.

The new regulations will extend contract length to three years from two in order to provide growers with greater security and stability. A farmer or processor will have to give two years notice in order to terminate their contract.

An annual agreement will have to be negotiated which will include price and other contact terms. Producers will have to elect by secret ballot how they want the terms negotiated.

Regulation 440 sets out the process for the creation and workings of a negotiating agency, but doesn’t set the process for direct negotiations.

Negotiating agencies will be comprised by up to three elected producers and three additional producer members appointed by the processor, together with processor members.

An independent conciliator will be available to help if an agreement can’t be reached and they can also serve as an arbitrator.

Direct negotiation will include minimum prices, a payment schedule and costs and expenses. Disputes will be resolved by a process agreed to by the producer and processor.

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Robbins, who comes from the Poultry Industry Council to the OPVG, is an experienced employee and manager of agriculture industry associations.

Robbins starts his new role Sept. 17 and takes over from Cathy Lennon who is the new general manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

Robbins has 27 years of experience in management, communications and marketing, mostly in the hog and poultry sectors.

He comes to the OPVG during a challenging time for the organization which has been targeted for change for the past several years by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC).

The OFPMC is the arm’s-length commission that sets rules for farm organization on behalf of the provincial government.

A first attempt to reorganize and free up processing vegetable marketing resulted in little change under the previous Liberal government. A second round has been initiated under the current Conservative government, especially relating to processing tomatoes.

The OPVG has unique power to negotiate crop pricing on behalf of growers with processors.

“We welcome Keith to OPVG and look forward to his leadership and guidance as the organization faces changes to how we market Ontario’s diverse range of processing vegetable crops,” says Dave Hope, chair of the OPVG board. “Keith’s experience in other ag sectors will bring a perspective that will benefit our producer members, and we know his level-headed approach will be a tremendous asset to our organization.”

Robbins graduated from Centralia College with an agricultural business management diploma in 1989, graduated from Conestoga College with a certificate in volunteer board management in 1993, attended the University of Waterloo for a bachelor of environmental studies in 1993 and obtained his executive development program from the George Morris Centre in 2005.

Farm gate receipts for processing vegetables totaled almost $100 million in 2018.

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The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers says that instituting direct contracting for Ontario growers of processing tomatoes will “devastate rural Ontario growers and potentially kill thousands of jobs.”

The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC) – the provincial government agency that regulates farm marketing boards – has proposed opening up marketing for tomatoes to direct contracting between farmers and processors. The OPVG has for years negotiated pricing for most processing vegetables on behalf of growers.

Why it matters: The decisions of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission on this topic will have a profound effect on how processing vegetables are marketed in the province.

The organization recently submitted its response to a request for input on the OFPMC’s proposed changes to the organization and marketing in the sector. The deadline for input was June 6. The submission was signed by Dave Hope, the government-appointed chair of the board.

“Direct contracting heavily disadvantages small and medium-sized growers as they have little to no bargaining power to negotiate with larger independent and multinational processors,” the submission says.

It points to Australia, where deregulation in the tomato market meant a decline in tomato growers from 107 to 16 from 1991 to 2016. Processor numbers also declined from 10 to three.

The OPVG says that in its current form, the organization embraces free trade, thrives in an international market and attracts investment.

There has been more than $300 million in investment in the processing vegetable industry in Ontario since 2015.

The OPVG says that it believes there’s room for improvement in the industry and wants to be part of the plan, including proper consultation.

“We request that the government establish a fair and transparent consultation committee with appropriate time frames.” The OPVG previously expressed concern about the fact that the consultation period was during spring planting time.

The OPVG has four key areas it says are needed to maintain sector profitability, including:

• Pricing framework – An industry-wide multi-year pricing framework for tomatoes that fosters investment in the industry.
• Grower security – A previous round of changes created a provision that allowed a processor to not renew contracts with a farmer without cause with a year’s notice. The OPVG wants a return to the previous two-year notice.
• Fairness – Ensuring that processor capacity changes and need for more product be evenly dispersed among growers.
• Governance and accountability – The OFVG wants the current governance structure for growers to remain and says that any changes should focus on increasing participation from growers.

The organization says that in 2016 98.9 per cent of growers wanted the existing model of annual negotiations maintained.

Some growers looking for change

There are, however, growers who support opening up marketing of processing tomatoes.

Eric Allaer, a Lambton-Kent grower of several processing vegetables, says he believes farmers that grow about 35 per cent of the tonnage of tomatoes produced in Ontario support increasing direct marketing with processors.

“I think it’s important to note that it’s not at all one or two rebel growers out there,” he said. “I farm with my brother, my son and my nephew. Every farmer involved on the side of wanting change are family farms. They are not run out of some corporate office,” he said. He contacted Farmtario because he says those who support change are not getting the same voice as those who are opposed.

Allaer grows for processors in Ontario, but also grows peppers and pickling cucumbers for U.S. processors where he sells directly.

Peppers were once under the authority of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG), but when almost all processing left, price negotiation was dropped. Allaer says there are now significant acres of peppers grown in Ontario and shipped to the U.S. and he points out that some of the growers shipping to the U.S. where they direct market, are vocal about supporting the continued collective marketing of processing vegetables in Ontario.

Allaer was one of the growers appointed to the board by the government when the previous Liberal government dismissed the board of directors and appointed a board and a chair for a year. The board is now fully elected, and Allaer wasn’t elected to the board in elections earlier this year.

He points to other times in Ontario’s agriculture marketing history when marketing was liberalized including wheat and hogs and both those sectors have continued to grow.

The sector needs to remain competitive, he says and the board helps protect inefficient growers.

“Growers not in the industry today, other than those who have retired, it was not price that made them exit the business. It’s always consistently been a lack of good production,” he says.

Allaer is also a turkey producer and therefore works under an even-more-highly regulated market system under supply management. The difference, he says, is that there are tariffs that protect the border under supply management, whereas in tomatoes “we have to compete with the big boys, the Californias of the world.”

Allaer believes there’s still a role for the OPVG board, in research, government relations and in grading. However, he doesn’t believe the board will change, or lead significant change in the sector.

“They should be spending time and energy and be open minded about what do we have to do to make the change.”

Instead, he says the board is trying to maintain the sector where it was 10 years ago, not where it needs to be 10-years from now.

The post Processing vegetable input period ends appeared first on Farmtario.

So far it has delayed flowering and planting, caused some farms to reschedule the arrival of temporary foreign workers and created uncertainty about the viability of transplanted seedlings.

Why it matters: Fruits and vegetables are high value crops and not getting enough of them planted will have effects on farm income.

Will Heeman recorded a message for his family’s third-generation strawberry and U-pick farm near Thorndale: “This year’s season will be the latest on record for our farm over 55 years,” blaming delayed flowering of most varieties.

Some everbearing varieties are flowering now, with fruit expected to begin ripening sometime in mid-June, “but they will be very, very limited in supply.”

Planting conditions for peas, green beans and sweet corn destined for the processing market, meanwhile, “have been poor in all (traditional) growing areas,” Cathy Lennon, general manager of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) said.

“We are about 40 to 45 per cent (planted) for green peas, 10 per cent for sweet corn and 12 per cent for green beans,” she said in early June.

Heeman says the farm hopes to see ripening of June-bearing varieties beginning in late June, to allow for opening of U-pick operations by the crucial Canada Day holiday on July 1.

But he cautioned the schedule is “depending on the weather, and we will need to have some warmer days coming on over the next few weeks” to prevent further delays.

Gordon Stock, who handles senior policy and government relations for the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (OFVGA), said he has heard similar concerns about delayed flowering raised by tree fruit growers.

“Even as I look out the window (in OFVGA’s Guelph office), only now are the trees fully in leaf. And that should have happened several weeks ago.”

Producers of various other horticultural crops, meanwhile, may think tree fruit and berry growers should count themselves lucky that a crop is in the ground. Persistent wet weather has kept many farmers entirely out of their fields, preventing them from putting seed or transplanted vegetable crops into the ground.

Agricorp has extended some planting deadlines for growers wanting to be covered by crop insurance, including recently for corn and soybeans. “Where appropriate, they have been extending crop production deadlines for this coming season,” says Stock.

Even some of those extended deadlines, including for onions for seed and Spanish onions, have now also passed or will be passed soon.

Lennon confirmed the onion deadline situation but said extensions are being considered for other crops.

In an email following her interview, Lennon said Agricorp approved a request to extend the last day to plant processing green peas from June 1 to June 11 for municipalities within Chatham-Kent, except Tilbury East and Romney townships. There were no changes for other regions.

Lennon said it marked the first time Agricorp has granted a 10-day extension on processing peas. Extensions have typically been for four or five days.

Stock said that for fruit and vegetables, there is always a range of cut-off dates, depending on the region of the province. Producers with specific questions should get in touch with Agricorp.

However, he said in general, there is coverage under existing crop insurance policies for those who end up with unseeded acreage due to weather. And for horticultural producers in particular, under the self-directed Risk Management Program option through Agricorp, this spring’s wet weather does qualify as a reason to withdraw from the account in the case of financial strain.

On the federal side, Stock said the government granted an extension on signing up for AgriStability in response to the global trade troubles with canola. But the extension applies to all crops, and he said it could be an option for some moisture-stressed horticultural producers.

“The existing tools are there for farmers to work through these types of scenarios.”

Transplanting is a practice particular to some horticulture crops, and Stock acknowledged the increased uncertainty about the potential viability of transplants the longer farmers have to wait to put them in the ground.

He suggested the crops for which transplants are typically grown on-farm, such as broccoli, could allow for greater flexibility compared to crops for which transplants are typically brought in from off-farm, such as tomatoes. But as the wet weather continues, the situation becomes more stressful no matter the production system.

Lennon estimated about half of the planned 10,000 Ontario acres of processing tomato transplants were in the ground by May 29, although many more have been planted since.

Another aspect that presents a challenge for many horticulture producers is the timing of the arrival for temporary foreign workers.

It’s a balancing act that makes the weather delays that much more complex than a commodity crop grower waiting it out until the soil dries, said Stock. But he added that growers who use the program generally know how to pinpoint the workers’ arrival, and if they don’t, there are representatives at their commodity organizations who can help.

“You want to ensure you have enough workers when there is work to be done. But, on the other hand, you don’t want them sitting in the bunkhouse with nothing to do.”

As well, the workers want to be working and earning money. If that’s not happening, they’re happier being home with their families, he said.

He said one broccoli producer on the OFVGA board of directors described being between two to three weeks behind getting seedlings into the ground.

Lennon said pea growers could be the first to abandon their crop plans.

“The pea crop at this point is probably the most significant concern and we expect it will be very, very difficult to plant the required acres in a timely fashion in order to assure a quality, consistent product for our processors.”

She added her recent conversations with OPVG members have reflected “frustration,” but certainly not panic.

“They recognize … it’s the nature of the business and that conditions will still improve in time to plant a crop.

“We will need heat, though, going forward.

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The provincial government and the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission (OFPMC) is now pushing for open marketing at the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, especially for tomatoes, after already putting the sector through two years of changes.

The OFPMC is the government arm that regulates farm organizations in the province.

Ernie Hardeman, Ontario’s minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs posted a recent letter that called for more open marketing of processing vegetables, including direct producer-processor contracts.

Why it matters: The move to more open marketing of processing vegetables is the latest in a line of commodities where the OFPMC has acted to open up marketing, including hogs and grapes.

The OFPMC has set a 45-day comment period, announced just before Easter weekend that runs until early June, and will happen through the main planting season for farmers.

“I am so disappointed that now is the time when growers are being asked to sit down and put some thought into where they want the industry to go,” says Cathy Lennon, general manager of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG).

Processing vegetable pricing is negotiated with processors by a committee representing producers. That process has been challenging for tomatoes, including this year, despite changes to the system over the past few years.

“Maintaining the current system poses a real risk of losing processing plants and related jobs,” said Hardeman in his letter. “Too often we have seen the crop year in danger and the future market for Ontario processing vegetable growers put in jeopardy.”

There was no input from growers before Hardeman released his letter. In fact, the growers had a meeting with him not long before the letter was released, and no mention was made of direct contracting.

All negotiations for processing vegetables have been concluded for 2019.

“The board’s position on changes to the marketing system has been clear — we want the opportunity to be involved in developing a marketing structure and process that directly impacts the livelihood our farm families depend on,” says Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) vice-chair Michael Denys, a Wallaceburg-area grower who was elected to the board in 2018 after serving one year as an appointed director.

Tomatoes make up the largest portion of the $100 million in farmgate sales of processing vegetable crops in Ontario. Negotiations over tomatoes have proved the most challenging for years, as is happening again this year.

Growers looked forward to the new Conservative government. Many growers thought the previous changes were influenced by the Liberal government because some key owners of tomato processing are well-connected Liberals.

Hardeman’s letter showed growers that change will continue.

“I have asked the commission to develop a new marketing approach for the processing vegetable sector that includes direct contracting between processors and tomato growers, and to look at options for other processing vegetables,” Hardeman said.

“My expectation is that this will encourage processing investment, enable growers to be profitable, and result in a sector that is competitive and sustainable in the future. I believe this will keep jobs in Ontario and result in more growth. To provide stability, it is important that these changes are in place in advance of 2020 crop negotiations.”

Lennon says that direct marketing was not part of the discussion during the past two years of regulatory change.

“None of the data supports what they are doing,” she says. “It is a philosophical decision that the bureaucracy has made on the right way to do business here in Ontario and they are trying to support that decision with facts. My duty is now to make sure they have the right information.”

How we got here

• The processing vegetable market in Ontario has been in turmoil for several years, after former Liberal Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal dismissed the board and most of the staff and appointed a trustee to run the board in 2017.
• The OFPMC had proposed more open marketing in 2016, but Leal had stayed that process pending more grower consultation.
• Like the current situation, the OFPMC had also proposed consultation then during the growing season.
• The trustee and the OPFMC eventually set a path back to grower elections that included a provincially appointed chair of the board, with half of the board appointed and half elected in 2017.
• By last fall, the entire board was elected, although the chair of the board continues to be appointed.
• Dave Hope, a new chair was appointed just before the last annual meeting of the board in January.
• The OFPMC revamped processing vegetable board regulations. There were some changes to the way marketing committees were appointed by growers, and some new election procedures, but growers still had control over price negotiation.

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