LUMSDEN, Sask. – Three young Saskatchewan entrepreneurs are hoping their new businesses will bear fruit in the coming years.
Joel Campbell is propagating exotic fruit varieties like goji berries on his small farm at Lumsden, while Rachel Buhler and her brother Chris plan to combine tilapia fish farming with strawberry and vegetable production at Osler.
Theirs are just two of five entrepreneurial ideas entered in the University of Saskatchewan’s BioVenture Challenge.
Five finalists were named during a presentation at the university in June. A winner, to be chosen in September, will receive $50,000 in seed money for the enterprise.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
In early August, Campbell was setting up a greenhouse on his new 30 acre farm in the Qu’Appelle valley and nurturing young bushes to sell to fruit growers and landscapers.
While Saskatchewan has numerous nurseries for landscaping trees, few offer fruit trees for commercial growing operations, he said.
Campbell said the province’s hot, dry summers and cool nights allow producers to grow high quality fruit with good sugar content, while cold winters alleviate disease and insect pressures.
“Once people see what we can do and realize the benefits you get from growing fruit in Saskatchewan, it will pick up steam,” said Campbell, who lives in a valley where market gardens are abundant.
He said there is a huge untapped potential in fruit growing, citing some estimates of 5,000 acres of fruit and a multimillion-dollar industry in Saskatchewan within 20 years.
He said growers are increasingly focusing their efforts on marketing and diversifying their orchards by adding sour cherries and blue honeysuckle to staples like saskatoons and strawberries.
Key to successful growing will be choosing the right location for gardens and the right cultivars for that growing site, he said.
He pointed to strips of grass on his terraced orchards that help ease erosion. Campbell is also planting fruiting shelterbelt trees like pincherries and sea buckthorn for future markets and to protect the young plants from wind.
In the future, he plans to add more greenhouses to assist him in propagating varieties.
Campbell has financed his business, largely through the sale of his family’s farm at Pense, Sask., but feels the $50,000 prize will be helpful. It comes with no strings attached, which appeals to the independent minded Campbell.
“I like doing things on my own,” said the former student of horticulture at the U of S.
Much of his business is focused on the numerous health benefits of the exotic goji berry, bound for fresh fruit markets.
A website is helping get the word out about his available stock, which will include grapes, hazelnuts, cherries and blue honey-suckle.
The environmental benefits of integrating fruit production with year-round fish farming are driving the business plan of plant science graduate Rachel Buhler and her brother Chris, who is trained in greenhouse management.
“It’s a way to produce food unavailable in Saskatchewan, and to produce it locally and economically,” said Rachel, who noted how most fruit and vegetables consumed here are imported from other provinces and countries.
In their proposed $500,000 aquaponic system, fish tank wastewater will be used to nourish greenhouses that grow strawberries without soil.
The Buhlers explained how the plants will cleanse the water of ammonia found in fish excrement, without the need for high priced equipment and chemicals. At the same time, that wastewater will fertilize plants.
The operation will use a small amount of land and water to produce food relative to intensive agricultural operations like feedlots. They plan to build a small greenhouse to test the system this fall and complete their Floating Gardens facility by spring at their family’s farm at Osler.
The Buhlers plan to produce about 400 tilapia weekly when in full production, adding lettuce as a secondary crop in future.
They are targeting fresh fish markets aimed at Asian Canadians in Saskatchewan and Alberta and plan to sell their fruit wholesale into grocery stores.
Their location near a highway will also allow for direct farm sales.
The Buhlers said tapping the resources of the university and industry personnel through the BioVenture Challenge proved helpful.
“We ended up with a business plan that’s a bit stronger than if we did it ourselves,” said Chris.
All BioVenture finalists created business plans and worked with coaches and mentors and will be considered for venture capital funding from the Saskatchewan Angel Investors Network.
Also participating in the challenge are Steve Mamchur, a Prince Albert pharmacist, who is developing hormone concentrates from natural plant sources for use in hormone replacement therapies; Tyler Whale, who is creating a curbside collection company for compostable material; and Patrick Mah, whose remediation process is intended for use at oil fields and mining sites.
The challenge, a joint venture of the university’s industry liaison office and Saskatchewan Agriculture, is aimed at accelerating opportunities in the bioeconomy.
