The Packer recently sat down with Joe Sbrocchi, executive director and general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, or OGVG, to discuss the impact of COVID-fueled supply chain issues and policy decisions on both sides of the U.S./Canada border that could exacerbate an already stressed system for Canadian greenhouse growers. Sbrocchi is a Canadian produce industry veteran, who also understands the retail side of the business, having led Sobeys’ national fresh produce efforts for 15 years and having helped to build the fresh supply chain for Walmart Canada. The Leamington, Ontario-based OGVG represents more than 220 farmers responsible for over 3,600 acres of fresh greenhouse tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers across the province.
Late last month, the OGVG issued a release calling supply chain issues “a significant concern” for greenhouse vegetable growers. What’s the latest and how are growers hoping to overcome these challenges?
SBROCCHI: The OGVG is calling on the parties involved to come to a resolution. This isn’t a question of politics. It’s a question of maintaining nutritious, high-quality and affordable food — relative to everything else on retail shelves — for Canadians and Americans.
The reality is that the original grand idea of [North American Free Trade Agreement] really created a very fluid movement amongst three countries within a population of approximately 500 million people, so it created one of the strongest trading blocks in the world — if not the strongest. Not everything panned out the way it was originally envisioned, but I would say that fresh produce moving across those three countries was one of those things that bore a lot of fruit — no pun intended.
Against that backdrop, it is important to consider that this time of year, it’s Canadians that will be affected [the most] because so much of the produce comes up from the U.S. and Mexico. If you fast-forward about a month or so down the road, it’s in a transitionary phase.
Eventually, product finds its way onto the shelf, but it’s at what cost and in what state. And what I mean about ‘what state’ is the consequences if it’s unreasonably hung up — whether in ports or at borders. Produce has an incredibly short shelf-life relative to other things like a chocolate bar. It’s a fresh food item that, in the grand scheme of things, has hours of shelf-life, not days or weeks. That was the impetus for our press release. You’ve seen since then a number of press releases from wholesalers, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association and so on and so forth. It’s a difficult situation all the way around.
So, ultimately, both sides of the U.S./Canadian border are impacted?
I don’t think the average Canadian or American always understands how interdependent our fresh food supply chain is and that makes it incredibly robust in some ways, but also incredibly fragile in others. Hiccups are not a good thing in a just-in-time supply chain like ours.
What is the size and scope of the Ontario greenhouse market?
This year, there’s probably about 3,600 acres of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, which are our main items. It does not include strawberries or lettuces, which would be another 300 acres of both of those combined.
To put it in perspective, those 3,600 acres produce the same amount of product that a 150,000- to 160,000-acre open field would, so it’s significant when you think about it in those terms. Open field has a much shorter growing season than greenhouse. In terms of production, it’s cucumbers first, followed by tomatoes a few weeks later, and then peppers. It’s the wonders of protected agriculture; however, less than a third of them are lighted so they can go year-round. Most of them are seasonal, but it’s still a much greater growing season than you would have in open field. We refer to the different greenhouses as lit culture for those that have lighting and heating and conventional greenhouses. And then, of course, there’s organic, as well.
Given current challenges, what do you see as the greatest opportunity for Ontario’s vegetable greenhouses?
The challenges right now are that virtually everything that is associated with greenhouse-grown, as with most agriculture — don’t get me wrong, we don’t get to carry that torch all by ourselves — but the cost of everything has gone through the roof.
The cost of fertilizers is up 250%. One greenhouse builder told me if he were to start building a greenhouse today, he would be quoting about a 70% higher cost per square meter of greenhouse than he did four years ago. How is that going to impact further growth?
The market typically does not allow those kinds of cost pressures to totally come through the system to the end consumer, so I worry about my members. I worry about their ability to survive massive cost increases. I worry that inflation like this makes a lot of people poorer. And these inflations aren’t specific to the greenhouse sector, though we’re affected by it because so much of the inputs of building in the greenhouse sector come from offshore.
Is there a bright spot here?
The counterbalance to all of that is that I believe we are very close to coming out of all of this. One way or another, as my 90-year-old mother says, ‘I’m done with this … I want to see my grandkids.’
I think that echoes what everyone feels. I think this means that people will be ultimately uplifted. We’ll get through it and we’ll be stronger for it.
I always say, if you want to know what the future looks like, check out the past. I believe that we’re going to get more frugal. I believe that we’re going to learn how to reduce food waste because it’s just smart.
I think you’re going to see the effects of the supply chain disruption continue for some time.
In northern climates, you’re going to see times where there’s a lot of product on the shelf and there will be times when that product isn’t there because the ebbs and flows have to be streamed out of the system, and that will take time — my prediction is at least a year, maybe more. During that time, we’re going to have to recover from COVID and from a lot of other things, but that’s usually when you get stronger. It’s going to be alright.
