Consistent size, quality needed | Beet, cauliflower and zucchini growers scramble to keep produce from getting too big
OUTLOOK, Sask. — Planting vegetables for retail sale isn’t exactly like planting a backyard garden.
Producers have to plant a variety the retailer wants, package it the way the retailer wants and deliver it when the retailer wants.
And not everyone can grow every type of vegetable.
“When we first started, everyone wanted to grow carrots,” said Sask-atchewan vegetable specialist Connie Achtymichuk of the early days of Prairie Fresh Food Corp.
Sixteen growers in six zones are now planting 22 types of vegetables and entering their second year as suppliers to Federated Co-operatives Ltd.
Read Also
Agri-business and farms front and centre for Alberta’s Open Farm Days
Open Farm Days continues to enjoy success in its 14th year running, as Alberta farms and agri-businesses were showcased to increase awareness on how food gets to the dinner plate.
“All the growers in their particular areas got together and figured out what they were going to grow, and it actually came together quite nicely,” she said during the Canada Sask-atchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre (CSIDC) field day July 10.
They faced various challenges during their first production year in 2013.
Three producers grow carrots in the Outlook area. They were generally growing the same variety, so that was not a tough decision to make.
However, onion and radish producers were growing different varieties.
“When multiple producers are growing under a common brand, the consistency is really important, so we chose the varieties and we developed spec sheets for each product we were growing and then we had workshops with the growers,” Achtymichuk said.
She said the goals are flavour and quality, and Prairie Fresh sells only Canada No. 1 or U.S. No. 1 grades.
Corn was the most difficult variety to select.
“Our buyer wants a bi-colour corn, something that looks like a peaches and cream,” Achtymichuk said.
“Most of our growers were growing a yellow corn, and they had a variety that they absolutely loved.”
The buyer wasn’t even all that keen on buying Saskatchewan corn in the first place, but it ended up being a winner, she said.
“We tried to stagger plantings and plan everything in advance, and it never works the way it’s supposed to,” she said.
“We had way too much corn all at once. Some of it went to Calgary, and they were asking for more.”
Beets grow well in Saskatchewan, but people just don’t eat enough of them.
Field checks last year showed growers were going to end up with a lot of big beets. Maximizing yield by growing big vegetables isn’t always desirable.
“The biggest beet we want in the bag is three inches,” Achtymichuk said.
“I’m looking at this and saying, ‘we’re going to have a pile of big beets that we have no market for.’ ”
However, growers suggested they start harvesting early and market baby beets. FCL was interested, so the bags were developed and baby beets hit the store within weeks.
They sold well, and there wasn’t a large pile of oversized beets in the end.
Achtymichuk said Prairie Fresh is trying to negotiate a smaller bag than the 10- and 25-pound bags the stores want because the typical family doesn’t eat that many beets.
Size also became an issue for cauliflower growers.
Prairie Fresh committed to a 12-count case of about 22 lb, but despite a fast harvest, the grower couldn’t keep up and some heads became too large to sell. The solution: 12-count and nine-count cases this year.
“Radishes are a fun crop,” Achtymichuk said.
“They’re a 28-day crop so you plant and harvest, plant and harvest, plant and harvest.”
Growers had a little trouble with that concept and committed only to replanting twice.
They ended up planting six times and selling 18,000 bags. They were up to 11 plantings by early July of this year and intend to sell 85,000 bags.
The success of this crop led the corporation’s main grower to buy equipment to trim the tops, but the trimmer didn’t cut as far down as someone trimming by hand.
“They looked fine in storage, but then (when) shipped off to the stores the leaves started re-growing in the bags and they looked like a mess,” she said.
There are no equipment dealers in Saskatchewan and no one else operating the same equipment, so the grower asked the Quebec supplier for help. The supplier passed along names of other growers who use the trimmer, but they speak only French.
“So we’re still working on it,” Achty-michuk said. “That is a real challenge for the industry.”
“Everything that zucchini does in your garden — multiply that 6,000 times,” Achtymichuk said of the one grower who had 6,000 plants last year.
Buyers require lead time on vegetables so that they can clean out supplies and bring in new stock. However, zucchini is unpredictable and can go from flowering to an eight-inch zucchini in what seems like an instant.
“He actually harvested his zucchini oversized and threw out the first 1,000 pounds,” she said.
Harvesting every second day didn’t work because what was left at the end of the first day was too big by the second day.
The grower decided to use hockey sticks to move the leaves around, work faster and eliminate some of the backbreaking work.
“He had bought 1,000 cases (to fill) at the start of the season, and he was kind of shaking his head, (thinking that would never happen),” Achtymichuk said.
“In the end, he ran out and just stopped picking. There were still thousands of pounds he could have picked.”
Each case holds about 25 pounds of zucchini.
Garlic is the most requested vegetable from Prairie Fresh, but it’s been slow to get going.
“You don’t grow garlic from seed; you grow it from cloves, which are vegetative,” Achtymichuk said.
“It’s expensive and it’s hard to come by good healthy seed stock.”
Garlic is planted late in the season, generally October, and can suffer winterkill.
The Yorkton zone is the home of several growers who are now multiplying garlic.
“We’ll be a little shy on supplies for 2014 but should have a good supply in the stores in 2015,” she said.
Despite the agronomic challenges, Achtymichuk said the biggest challenge for the new company was turning 16 growers into a single business.
Bryan Kosteroski, value chain manager at the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan, said growers were using different methods of calculating costs, didn’t always keep good yield records and needed to understand marketing and branding.
“We developed an online strategy where producers can key into their programming and come out with a costing based on their yields,” he said during the field day.
FCL pays a premium for local produce, but it isn’t big, Kosteroski said. The growers had to be smart heading into the deal, he added.
However, what really tripped them up was the idea of branding and marketing.
Kosteroski said a common refrain among growers was that if consumers just tasted the produce, they would “get it.”
That slogan — Taste the Difference — became the tag line for the brand.
“That’s really driving the sales of our product,” Kosteroski said.
“Yes, it’s a better tasting carrot. It’s a better tasting cob of corn.”
Corporation members constantly talk by conference call to share the good, the bad and the ugly of the business, and they understand they have to work as a team to make the corporation successful.
Kosteroski said the brand is already well-recognized and receiving national exposure.
“Yes, there are other retailers knocking at the door,” he said.
“These guys have a growth strategy in place. They’re going to stay focused and they’re going to grow at a pace that they can sustain.”
All members are CanadaGAP certified, and Kosteroski said Saskatchewan leads the nation in vegetable food safety certification.
The group meets with buyers in November to establish sales volumes and prices for the following year.
Kale and brussels sprouts, the top two most fashionable vegetables in the United States, are being planted at the CSIDC, and Kosteroski said growers are staying on top of what they might grow next.
