Canada’s greenhouse industry has been on an expansion binge this decade.
Between 1991 and 1996, the number of acres under glass or plastic grew 41 percent to 3,200 acres, according to Statistics Canada.
The majority of the production was flowers with most of the growth in Ontario, but 33 percent of the industry produced vegetables and all provinces had some growth.
On the Prairies last year, there were 1,150 farms reporting greenhouse production, including 600 in Alberta. British Columbia, with 1,290 greenhouse growers, was second only to Ontario.
For Mel Jones, director of the agriculture census for Statistics Canada, the growth of the greenhouse industry is a symbol of the healthy, diversified Canadian farm sector in the mid-1990s.
“When the free trade deal was signed (in 1989), there were predictions from some that it would kill the greenhouse industry in Canada,” he said in a May 14 interview.
“Instead, it has grown. I hear we are even selling greenhouse tomatoes into the U.S.”
