Prairie vegetable growers could find new markets as Wal-Mart creates larger stores with produce lines, a Manitoba grower told a Saskatchewan conference Nov. 13.
The change will mean large volume buying, said Doug Connery of Connery Riverdale Farms at Portage la Prairie, Man.
He hoped Manitoba’s well-established grower co-operatives would be approached first, but was unsure they could provide enough supply at the price and quality required.
Supplying Wal-Mart will be a formidable challenge so growers across Western Canada should work together, Connery said.
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“For us to stay in business, we can’t afford to lose part of the local business,” he said.
“I think we can’t compete against each other on price, we have to work together co-operatively. If you don’t co-operate and the mass is too small, the pressure is coming in, and then it all falls apart.”
“Success only comes from always pushing that limit, always striving for something better,” he said.
Saskatchewan must move beyond its grain growing mindset and consider horticultural crops to advance that fledgling industry, said Connery.
Manitoba faced similar resistance to new crops but had deeper roots in growing and processing vegetables dating back to the 1800s, he said.
Berny Wiens, a market gardener at Hershel, Sask., said the province has been without a vegetable marketing board since the 1990s and the industry is slow to expand.
“It’s a huge challenge to get people going here. There’s no critical mass,” he said.
He hoped Saskatchewan could work through well-established marketing organizations and mechanisms already in place in Manitoba.
Elaine Waldner of the Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers Association felt her group’s lack of a marketing arm might have been a deterrent in a recent membership drive, especially among larger growers like Hutterite colonies.
