Farmers are seeking new opportunities to grow crops closer to home due to global trade and supply chain uncertainties.
Tag Archives vegetable
Exploring the possibilities from warming temperatures
European farmers grow crops they couldn’t grow in the past to diversify operations
Motivating and managing employees for farm markets
Pandemic pressures taught farm market businesses lessons on employee engagement and retention
Labour attraction and retention are challenging in agriculture, especially for seasonal vegetable and fruit operations. Whether front-line or field workers, maintaining and managing seasonal employees through pandemic burnout, consumer aggression and high expectations led growers to try new tactics to keep staff. Why it matters: Effective orientation of new employees and fostering emotional investment in […] Read more
Direct negotiations coming to processing tomatoes and carrots
Growers can also vote to negotiate as a group by secret ballot with individual processors
Ontario is opening up the processing tomato and carrot market to direct negotiations with processors, but is also leaving open the possibility of collective negotiation with individual processors. 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 […] Read more
Ontario fruit, vegetable growers challenged by wet weather
Strawberry season delayed; veggie growers wait out the rain
Ontario’s cool, wet spring has widespread repercussions for the fruit and vegetable sector. 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 […] Read more
More squeeze coming for tomato growers
Provincial government wants open marketing considered for processing vegetables
Ontario’s processing vegetable growers are being hit by more re-organization and uncertainty from government regulators. 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 […] Read more
Veggie farms face own challenges
Labour is one of the large issues for this diverse vegetable operation
Challenges on a vegetable farm can be slightly different than those on a grain farm. At the Connery’s Riverdale Farms in Portage la Prairie, Man. production costs and availability of workers are always on the mind. “Because we’re a veg farm and the crops that we grow are hand harvested, not mechanically harvested, almost half […] Read more
Dry weather means large processing tomato harvest
Farmers have about 35 per cent more tomatoes in the field this year than usual
Ontario processing tomato growers are harvesting one of the best crops in 10 years, with one of the top two contracted volumes of the past 10 years. That’s despite political challenges to the industry as the provincial government dismantled and then recreated the board of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers Association. Why it matters: Political […] Read more
Campbell to shut Toronto soup, broth plant
Campbell Soup Co. will call a halt to all Canadian soup and broth production by mid-2019 when it closes the doors on its Toronto manufacturing plant. The Camden, N.J. company’s Canadian arm announced Wednesday it will close the plant in phases over a period of up to 18 months and move its production to three […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
