Quebec growers battle a ‘season to remember’

In certain areas of Quebec, crops thrive in that special mucky, black soil that many upstate New York growers enjoy.

Likewise, Quebec’s delicate lettuces, shallots and cabbage also must endure the summer heat wave — intense heat.

“It’s harsh. It’s been a very challenging summer to date,” said Luc Prevost, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Vegpro International, Sherrington, Quebec.

The 2020 growing season so far has been tough for many producers and not only because of the coronavirus, said Jocelyn St.-Denis, executive director of Quebec Produce Growers Association. 

“The positive is that all the normally available fruits and vegetables are still there, some less, some more.”

Peak harvesting season in Quebec is mid-July through September. 

Early summer weather started out well before a frost took some crops, he said. Growers re-seeded, and then a drought stole more crops. Growers re-seeded again. 

Now temperatures are sweltering, but there’s also rain.

Some crops are late because they grew lethargic with temperatures in the 90-degree Fahrenheit range for days on end, St.-Denis said.

Then, there’s the coronavirus pandemic, with its domino effect of issues.

“My mother’s maiden name is Murphy, so I know about Murphy’s Law and it seems to be happening to us this year,” Prevost said.

With arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the biggest question for Prevost and his five partner farms was what to seed, because: 

A. What demand will be? and

B. How will we get foreign workers?

Besides the safety, sanitation and social distancing rules and mandates, growers are concerned about getting the temporary foreign labor into the country and onto the fields in the first place.

Quebec growers are dealing without 20% of their workers, or 3,000 to 3,500 temporary foreign farmworkers who mostly come from Mexico and Guatemala, St.-Denis said.

They haven’t been able to get to work because of problems at the labor office back home, the borders, flight delays and the Canadian mandate to quarantine for 14 days after arrival.

“Some fields were seeded less because growers didn’t want to take a risk on missing labor,” St.-Denis said. 

“If we’re short for summer, that means there might not be enough workers for apple harvest.”

Apples comprised 41% of the total marketed production of Canadian fruit in 2018, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. 

Then the association called on local workers to fill in on the farms, and some said yes, but when they put in one or two days of work, “they realized that job was not for them,” St.-Denis said. 

“I think the jobs in agriculture gained a lot of respect, because it’s not an easy job.”

By the numbers

Quebec battles it out with British Columbia for the silver medal of agriculture, while Ontario takes the gold.

Out of Canada’s 10 provinces in 2018, Quebec ranks second, after Ontario, in farm gate value of vegetables, at $333 million ($455.4 million Canadian dollars). That’s almost 38% of the country’s vegetable farm-gate value, according to Statistics Canada’s latest data.

Quebec ranked third, after British Columbia and Ontario, for farm gate value of fruit, at $194 million ($264.7 million Canadian dollars). That’s 23% of the country’s fruit farm-gate value in 2018.

Also, Quebec ranks second, after British Columbia, in the number of fruit farms and volume of fruit marketed. 

The province is second, after Ontario, in the number of field vegetable farms.

In 2018, Ontario continued to lead the greenhouse vegetable sector representing 63% of total farm gate value, while British Columbia and Quebec followed with 19.3% and 9.4%, respectively. 

Tomatoes were the largest contributor to greenhouse farm gate value, accounting for 37.4% or $565 million (Canadian dollars) of the total; followed by cucumbers and peppers.

Greenhouse grown

Les Serres Sagami Inc.-Savoura, St. Sophie, Quebec, grows strawberries, mini cucumbers, and organic and conventional tomatoes in greenhouses spanning 79 acres, 27 of those for organics.

The third heatwave of summer is affecting the tomatoes the most, said Danny Pulcinelli, sales director.

“We’re grading out more tomatoes than we normally would this time of year because of the heat,” he said.

Still, demand has been increasing ever since the start of the coronavirus market disruption.

“Quebec people are very loyal to their brands,” he said. “They want what’s grown close to home and feels safer than from somewhere else.”

Also, the Savoura brand initiated a plan to eliminate 100% of the company’s plastic use, but that plan was put on pause since the virus became a pandemic.

Even so, “organics are booming right now,” Pulcinell said.

Strategies

Vegpro specializes in washing and packing baby lettuces and growing a variety of vegetables on its farms. It’s had to source from California a few days here and there to cover some gaps in product availability, Prevost said.

Tender leaf season lasts until October, and carrots and onions come in August. 

Despite the challenges, the crops still look good, he said. But if the high heat keeps up, the onions could sunburn when they’re left in the field to dry out after harvest.

“And that’s not good for anybody,” Prevost said.

To keep crops cool and moist when rain stayed away too long, Vegpro adopted a new irrigation strategy. 

Instead of using teams to move around the irrigation piping to different sections of the field, they set it up and left it in one place permanently for summer.

“That sacrificed some acreage. But at least you reduce your requirement for labor on irrigation, so they can tend to seeding, harvesting or weeding,” Prevost said.

He’s concerned about Florida, where Vegpro will transfer its growing operations in the fall and where it has a packing plant in Belle Glade. 

So far, plant workers haven’t had any major health issues, but farmworkers live together and work together, he said.

“With the situation there, how that is going to evolve in the next 2½ months is anyone’s guess. Right now, it’s dire,” Prevost said.

He commends the company’s human resources department that manages the housing, feeding and health needs of more than 300 foreign workers in the plant and fields in peak season in Quebec.

“They don’t teach COVID at HR school,” he said.

There’s a lot of anxiety about keeping workers safe and healthy while also keeping the business afloat amid all the extreme weather and market disruptions.

“Our growers are very stressed and very tired,” St.-Denis said. “It’s going to be a season to remember.” 

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