Local produce difficult to source for Ontario food processors
Kwitko is among the growing number of people who’ve joined the local-food movement and are now taking it to the next level. Yet Ontario processors face a common challenge: sourcing locally grown produce at prices low enough and volumes high enough to keep their businesses viable.
At first, Kwitko says, it was easy — she bought produce at Costco or at organic-food stores. But as her business grew and she required ever-greater volumes of fruit, she ran into problems. She could find local apples, for example, but not local pears. “I think it’s because I’m just not big enough yet,” Kwitco says. “Ten bushels to me is huge, but to the growers it’s not that big.”
When it comes to large-scale processors, the cost of conventional (that is, non-organic) Ontario-grown vegetables is an ongoing concern, according to Steve Lamoure, president of Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processors. The organization represents several primary processors, including Campbell Company of Canada, Bonduelle Americas Inc., and Sun-Brite Foods Inc. — Lamoure’s employer.
Every year, the processors and their association representatives sit down with the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers association — which bargains collectively for 450 growers — to negotiate minimum prices for crops such as tomatoes, peas, corn, carrots, and onions, as well as other terms of sale.
Lamoure says the group of Ontario processors who peel, can, dice, and freeze products in their factories is tiny — just 14 processing companies hold the required licences — and their business is in danger of decline. Companies in this province simply can’t compete with the prices that processors in places like California offer for their products, he explains.
source: tvo.org
