COLUMN: Accent on Agriculture – Dauphin company puts tomatoes under glass

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/10/2023 (555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dauphin is the site of Manitoba’s newest commercial greenhouse. It was built by local people and was a long time in the planning stage. It occupies 10 acres of land and will be shipping out its first cartons of tomatoes within the next few weeks. They will go to stores across central Canada, from Thunder Bay to Calgary and Edmonton,

Most tomatoes sold in Canada are imported from California, although in the last few years a major drought in that state has significantly reduced production. Last year, about 200 million kilograms of tomatoes was imported into Canada at a value of $426 million.

The Canadian retail sector has made repeated calls for a sharp increase in tomato production in Canada. They point to the ongoing drought in California and the western United States and the subsequent reduction in irrigation permitted. The other part of importing that troubles retailers is the cost of transportation. The continuous rise in the cost of fuel as well as other transportation expenses results in a continually higher bill to carry vegetables to retail markets across the country. It will be much cheaper to move fresh vegetables from Dauphin into any city in the Central Canada region than from California.

Ever since the California drought began and the supply tightened, the industry has been urging an expansion in Canadian production. That call was taken up by trade magazines, columnists, consumers, and other media who have been pushing the industry to start building greenhouses across the country.

Some have been built, but they are not cheap and they are not without their problems. One is dealing with heat and humidity in the summer. It is one thing to add them in the winter, but completely different to remove heat and humidity in the summer. Not surprisingly, Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta have been leading the way. Ontario now has 3,800 acres under glass and building more every year (the Dauphin greenhouse is 10 acres). Ontario’s greenhouse vegetable sector represents $2.3 billion Gross Domestic Product and employs 32,200 on farms and in the value chain.

The people behind the Dauphin greenhouse say they are already planning an expansion to raise the size of the operation from 10 acres up to 70 acres. It will still leave them well behind Alberta. One marketing group based in Medicine Hat has 250 acres under glass.

We will have fresh, locally grown tomatoes on store shelves all winter.

Jim Rae is the former host of Information Radio on CBC Radio.