The only way is forward.
That’s what Ontario’s processing vegetable growers heard at their annual meeting from the chair of the group that regulates farm marketing in the province.
That doesn’t mean some farmers didn’t still question the province’s move to fire the board of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers and its staff last year.
Jim Clark, chair of the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, said changes to the industry were necessary to continue to break down silos between parts of the value chain and move the sector forward.
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There remains challenges in sorting out the new regulations imposed on the organization, but most of the way forward has been set for the sector.
Arpad Pasztor spoke to the concerns of many growers in the industry over the past year when he addressed Clark during a question and answer session at the annual meeting.
“I’ve been trying to get my head around the whole situation since it started,” says Pasztor, a cucumber grower.
“For the life of me, I don’t understand why this is happening even now. I’ve been involved in other marketing boards. This is one of the best run and best for the growers’ sake.”
Pasztor challenged the marketing commission’s record and suggested it favoured processors over producers.
That prompted Clark, whose main job is executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders’ Association, to defend his farming credentials.
“At the end of the day have to start moving this thing forward, people,” he said.
“There’s enough blame going around for everybody, trust me.”
However, most of the annual meeting’s comments were saved for details about the way forward, including clarification on contract security language in Regulation 440.
In the room were several of the province’s leading growers and former board members, including Francis Dobbelaar, a Wallaceburg grower, former chair of the board and leader of a new organization formed for vegetable growers after the OPVG board was dismissed.
“I trust Jim and I trust his direction,” said Dobbelaar.
“We’re moving forward and that’s what we should do, but we have to make sure we follow good governance practices.”
The changes to the board practices were necessary to encourage processing to stay in the province, says Clark.
In 2016, the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission proposed opening up the marketing of processing vegetables in Ontario. Jeff Leal, the Ontario agriculture minister, stayed that process after a producer and industry outcry.
Last winter, after little progress on changing the sector, the provincial agriculture minister fired the board and installed a trustee when a major tomato buyer, Highbury Canco, refused to negotiate with the OPVG.
Most of the employees were dismissed and the trustee negotiated contracts for the 2017 growing season.
Half of a new board was appointed and half was elected last fall.
Suzanne Van Bommel was appointed board chair for two years.
The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission under Clark was given the task of managing the transition to a new reality for processing vegetable marketing.
