The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers confirmed its 2020 board. The sector earned just under $90 million in farmgate sales in 2019. Sweet corn had its strongest showing in four years with an estimated $8.017 million in farmgate value.  

After serving as vice-chair since 2013, Cathy McKay becomes chair of the provincial organization that includes 200+ members.The Port Perry apple grower is confident there are lots of growth opportunities.

Ontario apple grower Cathy McKay has been reappointed chair of CanadaGAP’s stakeholder advisory committee for 2020. It consists of volunteers who serve a technical role to the CanAgPlus board of directors. 

The constant stream of traffic is a telling sign that Howe Family Farms got it right on its second farm market location near St. Thomas. Grower Kevin Howe is celebrating the 2019 Local Food Champion award given by the local MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London. 

Nature Fresh Farms has announced that it’s transferring the keys to 36 acres, comprising Phase 1 and 2 greenhouses, to a new group of dedicated growers. The new business entity, Chosen Fresh Farms, is owned by Neil Enns, Ben Friesen, Abram Fehr and Peter Klassen. 

Fourth-generation grower Kyle Horlings is questioning the way things have always been done. Since 2015, he’s taken about 10 acres of carrots and onions out of production every year for restorative cover plantings. His experiments near King, Ontario garnered him the Healthy Soil Award from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority in November. 

Oleen Smethurst is known for her quest for flavour. As assistant vice-president, general merchandise manager for produce, Costco Canada, she jets all over the world from Berlin to Bogotá, meeting with growers and seed suppliers. While touring southern Ontario in late August 2019, she visited Martin’s Family Fruit Farm near Waterloo, Ontario.

Quinton Woods, sales and plant operations, Gwillimdale Farms, oversees the second phase of a storage facility near Bradford, Ontario that will be filled with onions and carrots in the fall of 2019. 

New packing lines are revolutionizing how tree-ripened tender fruit can be speedily handled and shipped to consumers. The largest peach grower in Ontario, the Tregunno family, installed a Spectrim vision system three years ago at the farm near Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Ryan Tregunno stays sharp for 10 weeks as traffic controller in his computer pit above the lines of peaches and nectarines.

Carrot, parsnip and onion grower Doug Van Luyk is one of those in the Holland Marsh who has expanded to 500 acres in both muck and mineral soils with the help of labour-saving technology. Here, his son Bradley stands on top of a self-propelled, two-row carrot harvester near Newmarket, Ontario. Photo by Glenn Lowson.

Miravis is the global umbrella brand for several group 7 fungicides containing Adepidyn, the trademarked name for the active ingredient. Miravis Duo is for cucurbit and fruiting vegetables while Miravis Prime is for grapes. 

It’s important to know who’s backing your crop protection products. In continuing fall-out from company mergers, some products such as Reason are changing hands.   

Systemic fungicide Cevya will be available for the 2020 crop year.  

The Prowl herbicide label is now expanded for control of labelled weeds on garlic, shallots and transplanted leeks in Canada

The Delegate insecticide label is now expanded for control of spotted wing drosophila on grapes and other pests in fruiting vegetables in Canada. 

The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers confirmed its 2020 board. The sector earned just under $90 million in farmgate sales in 2019. Sweet corn had its strongest showing in four years with an estimated $8.017 million in farmgate value.  

Headquartered in Leamington, Ontario, Plant Products Inc. is building on its core greenhouse base to include outdoor fruits and vegetables with the addition of a crop protection veteran. 

Ontario apple grower Cathy McKay has been reappointed chair of CanadaGAP’s stakeholder advisory committee for 2020. It consists of volunteers who serve a technical role to the CanAgPlus board of directors. 

The constant stream of traffic is a telling sign that Howe Family Farms got it right on its second farm market location near St. Thomas. Grower Kevin Howe is celebrating the 2019 Local Food Champion award given by the local MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London. 

Nature Fresh Farms has announced that it’s transferring the keys to 36 acres, comprising Phase 1 and 2 greenhouses, to a new group of dedicated growers. The new business entity, Chosen Fresh Farms, is owned by Neil Enns, Ben Friesen, Abram Fehr and Peter Klassen. 

The showcase of 2020 Innovation Award nominees will be a top attraction in Berlin from Feb 5-7.  One of them is a cross between Chinese green cabbage and broccoli with a distinctive purple stalk. 

Will 2020 be the year for commercializing robotic harvest of apples? Technical obstacles remain for the companies trialling in New Zealand, Europe and the United States. 

Mexico is a produce powerhouse. Globally, it’s one of the largest exporters of strawberries, eclipsed only by Spain and the United States.    

Pure Flavor, a Canadian-owned greenhouse grower, hosted U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue earlier this fall at its Fort Valley, Georgia location. The former two-time Governor of Georgia is originally from Perry, located just 10 miles from the greenhouse.

The California company that has engineered an edible covering for fruits and vegetables is opening offices in key countries:  Mexico, Netherlands and Peru. 

Oleen Smethurst, general merchandise manager for Costco Canada, flies all over the globe from Berlin to Bogotá to taste test fruits and vegetables.

Sweet potatoes are not native to Canada, but for the VanBerlo family near Simcoe, Ontario, sweet potatoes have become second nature.