Seasonal fruit is becoming a thing of the past as fruit production increases worldwide, Leo Baribeau told a joint meeting of the Saskatchewan Greenhouse Growers and Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers Nov 7.
The president of Star Produce Ltd. of Saskatoon, who also chairs the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, said Australia, New Zealand and Chile are steadily increasing production and exports.
Ready access to diverse produce means more choices for consumers, but that leads to eroding markets for popular Canadian fruit like Red Delicious apples, Baribeau said.
“You can be the best in the world but you better have a market for it,” he said. “What you grow does not dictate consumer trends.”
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Baribeau noted how Chinese mandarins have effectively cut into the once popular Japanese Christmas orange market and how Chile has become the biggest exporter of produce into Canada.
For Canadian growers, these trends mean switching from what they are able to grow to what they can grow well, he said.
Growers in the future will need to sell buyers on the health benefits of their produce when marketing their wares.
Something someone has tried in a restaurant is often what prompts consumers to go looking for it in the grocery stores, he said.
“The chefs drive the food industry,” he said.
Also driving the industry is food safety and increasing pressure on growers to adopt food safety systems like Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points.
“We’ve got to get into it,” he said.
“If you’re not getting on board, it isn’t whether or not you can make more money but it’s whether you’ll be able to count on making any money.”
Creating a plan for dealing with situations as they arise, maintaining personal hygiene routines like using gloves and removing earrings, and carefully documenting the process will be critical in the future, Baribeau said.
The growers group has sessions planned in the new year for on-farm food safety, said president Wayne Gienow.
“It’s being driven by retailers because the public is concerned about their food,” he said.
