In Ontario, processed field tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet corn, green peas, wax beans, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, peppers, pumpkin, squash, lima beans and onions all come under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers board, says Keith Robbins, general manager of the organization.
As stored inventories have been depleted during the Covid lockdowns and as some other growing regions have experienced extreme weather events this year, Ontario’s vegetable processors are telling their contracted producers to keep harvesting the crops as long as they can.
According to Robbins, the tomato crop is right at the start of the harvest: “Just starting, beginning this week. Certainly, it will be good for us if we do have a good crop. We’re needing the volume, especially when other jurisdictions are having some challenges. We’ve had some pretty good harvests so far, and there was a lot of inventory used up over the last little bit during Covid years. They’re looking for as good a crop as they can get. They’ve told the growers, if you’ve got the labor, keep doing it. You guys can bring them to the plant, and then they hit the grade, that’s what they’re looking for.”
Source: sfntoday.com