LONDON, Ont. — The low Canadian dollar and new market opportunities are sparking a resurgence of Ontario’s processing tomato industry.
Jim Poel, president of Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, said the industry’s low point came two years ago when H.J. Heinz Co. announced the closure of its processing plant in southwestern Ontario.
The closure reduced the volume of tomatoes processed in 2014 to less than 400,000 tons from more than 500,000 the previous year. Production increased to nearly 450,000 tons last year.
“We’re looking to build on this. The tomato volume looks to increase again in 2016,” Poel told a processing industry conference in London Feb. 2.
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Karl Evans, president of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Processors’ Association, said the Ontario industry lacks the economy of scale enjoyed by American competitors, but the current exchange rate is supporting the export of Canadian tomato products.
Evans said Ontario farmers who grow tomatoes and other processing crops demonstrated their ability to deliver last year despite weather setbacks.
“From a crop perspective, last season was unpredictable, to say the least,” he said.
“It was also one of the greatest turnarounds in recent history.”
A major development was the recent announcement by Highbury Canco that it will produce the tomato paste used to make French’s ketchup in Ohio. The Ontario company took over the former Heinz plant in Leamington.
Two other large tomato processors operate in Ontario: ConAgra Foods in Dresden, where Evans has worked for 36 years, and Sun-Brite Foods, an independent company near Leamington.
As well, there are several smaller processors, including Thomas Canning near Windsor. It is expanding its processing capacity as it increases overseas exports to markets such as Nigeria, where tomatoes are a staple food.
