MAY 2014
CELEBRATING 134 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
VOLUME 64 NUMBER 05
MARKET WINDOWS
Genetics, greenhouses open the way to market niches
Multi-tasking on his cell phone, Tim Horlings is supervising the transplanting of onions on the family farm near Bradford, Ontario. By late July, these onions will be ready for local markets, bridging from last year’s stored crop to new crop. For a few growers who plant about 300 acres of transplanted onions in the Holland Marsh, they can expect higher prices for up to a month. Photo by Glenn Lowson. KAREN DAVIDSON
INSIDE CPMA highlights
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New regs for soil fumigants
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Focus: Containers and packaging
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Bradford, ON/Delta, BC – Peel the layers to find a market within a market. From yellow cooking onions to hydroponic strawberries and sweet cherries, filling the shoulder season when competitive product is scarce is a growing trend. Just look at onions. With 29 varieties of the staple regularly grown in the Holland Marsh, some earlier-maturing varieties are being selected for greenhouse seeding. Then, weather permitting, the six-week-old transplants are sown during the first week of May. Barring windstorms or hail, come the end of July about 300 acres of transplanted onions will be harvested and appear on market shelves just as overwintered onions are being exhausted. Ideally, in bridging a local produce gap for consumers, these Holland Marsh-grown
onions will receive higher prices than their U.S. competitors. “Full credit goes to the Muck Crops Research Station (MCRS) which has completed onion trials, says Jamie Reaume, executive director, Holland Marsh Growers’ Association. “This resource is vitally important to access the earlier-maturing varieties and to take advantage of the winds of opportunity.” MCRS manager Shawn Janse explains that trial results are very important in selecting varieties for this niche market. Growers look for specific traits: 90-day maturity, high yields (1,000 plus bushels per acre), small necks and “decent” skins. Early-maturing varieties such as Alpine and Highlander have proven reliable cultivars because their small, thin necks allow quicker drydown. And they are a softer onion, ideal for this early market because they lack many characteristics more suitable for longer storage. In yet another example of nothing
wasted on the farm, genetics that have gone unvalued by mainstream growers appear to have found value within a time-sensitive niche market. Not surprisingly, the twin themes of genetics and greenhouses repeat themselves on the other side of the country at Windset Farms and its four acres of hydroponically-grown strawberries in Delta, British Columbia. Building on his success with peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, Windset chief operating officer John Newell has trademarked Soprano strawberries, prominently on display at the recent Canadian Produce Marketing Association trade show in Vancouver. Repeated taste tests demonstrate that these strawberries hit the high notes of colour, aroma, texture and most importantly, flavour. Newell maintains he didn’t set out to get into strawberries, but his strong relationship as a
supplier to Costco in the United States led to the opportunity. Market conditions are changing in the U.S., especially in droughtravaged California. In the state that famously produces $1.939 billion of field strawberries, the supply chain is under pressure due to a shortage of water and bans on soil fumigants such as methyl bromide and methyl iodide. Without products to control nematodes, growers are increasingly challenged to grow strawberries in the field. Costco, for its part, just wants reliable year-round supplies. So Newell upped his game, acquiring expertise from the Dutch and Belgians and learning the nuances of hydroponic strawberry farming. As one of the first to experiment in North America, he started with a standby, open-pollinated variety, Albion.
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