Greenhouse industry in Quebec is growing

The President of Quebec Greenhouse Producers, André Mousseau, says that more and more vegetable growers want to be able to offer produce earlier on in the season and they are building 10,000-15,000 square foot greenhouses to fulfil the increasing demand. He explains that organic vegetable producers that have 200 or 300 clients are increasing greenhouse production in order to offer quality produce.

However, the market is still dominated by a dozen large companies that alone represent 85% of greenhouse vegetable production. Greenhouse production in total represents $265 million over 265 hectares (newly converted organic producers are not always included in these figures as they are difficult to keep up with). Mr Mousseau thinks that if all small producers were included that the figure would be at least 20% higher. However, he explains that when a small company sees a sudden growth from one day to the next, it is hard for them to find a place on the market amongst the larger players.

Mr Mousseau believes that producers in Quebec would benefit from their products having their origins clearly labelled on the shelves, as there is an increasing demand for local vegetables but they are inundated by imported produce.