Catching the eye of consumers scanning store shelves can be a challenge in the greenhouse-grown or controlled environment agriculture (CEA) leafy greens category. "There are so many new local greenhouse or vertical farm operations that are really designed specifically for lettuce production," says Ian Adamson of Greenbelt Organic Greens, a certified organic controlled environment agriculture (CEA) grower in Ontario, Canada. "We are still the only organic local option available, but it's hard to stand out in the sea of other local greens."
To help enhance its differentiation on store shelves, the company is leaning into one of its strengths–namely its ability to grow a number of different ingredient items. With that in mind, this week it is launching two new SKUs: a Herb Medley which is a blend of lettuce mixed with aromatic herbs like dill, cilantro and parsley, giving the combination a unique Middle Eastern flavor; and Asian Mix which has Pac Choi, Japanese Spinach, Pea Shoots, Mizuma and it's an item that can be eaten either fresh or stir fried. Both items are rolling out in a major Ontario retailer.
"We've been test growing for the last three months and testing label design, etc. It's not like these products are unfamiliar to us but growing them at scale has taken some production changes within our facility," says Adamson, noting it's added additional equipment within its packing house to accommodate these new products.
Moving away from commodities
For the company, these new products follow a realization that lettuce is a commodity product and that moving away from that commodity product is a competitive advantage. "We can grow a number of different ingredients–cilantros, dills and more whereas other CEA systems are very specific to lettuce production," he adds. 
© Greenbelt Organic Greens
It also coincided with a request from a retail customer to fully replace imported product on its shelves. "With the herb blend, it was an imported product and they really wanted our full brand and to remove that imported product," says Adamson.
While production changes were in order, at the heart of the company's operation is…soil. As a soil-based operation, organic fertility has turned out to be more of an art than a science. "We've gained a much better understanding of it through extensive trials with the University of Guelph. We're finding that art and it's given us higher productivity levels and that's the key to our profitability," Adamson says.
Another new item coming
Following the introduction of these two products, within the next three months, the company will also roll out a red butter lettuce product, one that's also designed to replace an imported product on shelves. This product has seen a longer development process though following challenges in accessing seed supply to match the scale needed.
The next challenge though could be pricing, given that it is similar to last year at this time and stable. Especially given the fact that retailers consider products like these to be direct competitors to those U.S. imports. "CEA products are also perceived as a bit more of a premium item and many local competitors are packing less product per clamshell to maintain profitability," says Adamson. However there is resistance to CEA products like this one, which are larger volume items, doing the same. "Unfortunately it shows in retail pricing because we can't drive that price any lower than we currently have."
Add to that the challenge of increased costs. "It's been a really long cold winter in Ontario and maintaining product on shelf when it's been this cold a winter has been a bit of a challenge for all of us," he says, noting that in January, electricity rates in the province jumped by at least nine cents/kilowatt/hour.
For more information:
Ian Adamson
Greenbelt Organic Greens
[email protected]
https://greenbeltorganicgreens.com/
