Reading Time: < 1 minute The Ontario government is putting $19 million into a new initiative to support the competitiveness of the greenhouse sector in the province. Provincial Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal announced the funding on Thursday at Link Greenhouse near Bowmanville, just east of Oshawa. The Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative aims to provide funding for the creation of […] Read more
Ontario greenhouse growers get competitiveness fund
Ontario processing tomato contracts set
Reading Time: 2 minutes An agreement has been reached between growers and processors of Ontario tomatoes for the 2017 growing season, maintaining the 2016 pricing agreement and 2016 contract tonnage. Final prices, however, weren’t released Friday, as they historically have been on the website of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG). According to the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processing […] Read more
The challenge of optimism
A look inside a modern Ontario hort operation finds a farm family wrestling with issues that may soon dominate the farm agenda coast to coast
Reading Time: 8 minutes Some days, farming is more fun than others. Although he’s driven by a belief in agriculture, and although he’s working hard to keep building their farm enterprise, Shawn Brenn, president of Brenn B Farms Ltd. at Waterdown, Ont., admits there are also days when the frustrations can make him wonder. Every farmer knows the feeling. […] Read more
Keeping out the invaders
Biosecurity: Provincial organizations encouraged to promote a national on-farm biosecurity standard
Reading Time: 2 minutes This growing season, potato producers in Canada will be on the lookout for dickeya, an emerging blackleg pathogen in the U.S. that caused significant crop losses in the country’s northeastern region in 2015. Preventing new diseases like dickeya and keeping old adversaries like late blight in check are important reasons why growers subscribe to farm […] Read more
Ontario cider, spirit makers get support program
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ontario’s small-scale fruit cideries and distillers are getting provincial support to help scale up production. The province on Tuesday announced it would budget $4.9 million over three years for a new Small Cidery and Small Distillery Support Program. The program will provide eligible cideries with up to 74 cents per litre and eligible distillers with […] Read more
Nestle, Coke end Nestea iced tea venture
Reading Time: < 1 minute Zurich/London | Reuters –– Nestle and Coca-Cola have agreed to end their Nestea iced tea joint venture after 16 years and pursue separate strategies in the fast-changing bottled drinks market. The companies formed Beverage Partners Worldwide in 2001 to sell Nestea around the world but the brand has faced fierce competition from Lipton iced tea, […] Read more
Ontario names trustee to break tomato impasse
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Ontario government has appointed a trustee to assume the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers’ power to negotiate 2017 contracts with processors for the growing of processing tomatoes in the province. The board of directors of the marketing board has been dismissed until new elections are held, as expected by the end of 2017. “I have […] Read more
U.S. looks to gain back potato market share
Reading Time: 2 minutes A big factor influencing potato demand in the past decade or two has been low-carb diets that eschewed potatoes. But those negative views are changing, according to Blair Richardson, president of Potatoes USA. “The research we’ve been conducting in the last couple of years (shows) that consumer perception of the potato is actually improving quite […] Read more
New products available for potato growers in 2017
Reading Time: 5 minutes Aprovia Aprovia fungicide is a new alternative for the control of verticillium wilt. Aprovia contains the fungicide Solatenol, a SDHI (succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor) fungicide from FRAC Group 7. It is registered for in-furrow application to suppress verticillium wilt, silver scurf and rhizoctonia (black scurf, and stem and stolon canker). syngenta.ca Aprovia Top Aprovia Top fungicide […] Read more
Canadian potato industry on the upswing
A weaker loonie and promotion of potatoes prepared in more healthy ways are improving prospects for growers and processors
Reading Time: 6 minutes After several years of challenging times, the Canadian processing potato industry is feeling a lift, in part due to a lower loonie. It’s stimulated exports of french fries and other processed products as well as fresh potatoes to the United States and other markets, and for the first time in years some processing plants in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
