Page 24 - January_2019

“In the last year, food safety has just risen up the ranks of criteria,
especially in the minds of retailers, and they want to switch as
much of their supply to greenhouses as they can in salads.” — Paul Lightfoot, BrightFarms
as demand for year-round product grows.” Sourcing from partners in Canada, the United States and Mexico, Quon says Oppy takes every opportunity to bring retail partners into the greenhouse to see how the process
works.
“ e primary bene t of greenhouse
production is control of the growing condi- tions, from temperature, humidity and light levels, to water and nutrients, to natural pest control in a protected environment,” he says.
“ e result is a more uniform crop that is consistent looking and aesthetically appealing. In some geographies, control of the growing environment enables year-round production, which can be a convenience to retailers who prefer to stock the same grower or brand consistently.”
e indoor production business model is booming on the other side of Canada, as well. Jim DiMenna, president of Red Sun Farms in Kingsville, ON, estimates there are now more than 3,000 acres of greenhouses in south- western Ontario.
“ e industry has gone as far as to be growing under lights in the past few years, so it’s almost become a 12-month supply out of this area,” says DiMenna.
He says open- eld crop cultivation is still going to “exist forever because there’s a need and a want for the product,” but greenhouse growers such as Red Sun are bringing consis- tency to retailers by controlling the production environment.
“Imagine four inches of rain in a eld of tomatoes or cucumbers — you’re getting a di erent avor pro le, of course, because it has more water, whereas in a greenhouse we control it,” says DiMenna.
“We commit to planting a product for a speci c retailer, then we can deliver price, quality and volume, so there’s no supply gap.”
Also from southwestern Ontario, Pure Flavor of Leamington has been expanding its product line with the introduction of organic mini cucumbers and organic Aurora Bites’
as Kroger, Ahold Delhaize and Walmart. “Demand is greater than it’s ever been, and it’s certainly greater than our capacity,” says
Lightfoot.
In mid-2018, BrightFarms secured $55
million in Series D funding from Cox Enter- prises, which came from outside the traditional sector with a background in communications, media and automotive services.
“I don’t think that would have happened ve years ago,” he says. “So I do think that at least in the United States, the investment community has changed dramatically.”
e money will be used to start construc- tion of a new greenhouse in Pennsylvania, along with others in Texas, North Carolina and New York. While proximity is a signif- icant part of BrightFarms’ value proposition, it labels the exact location of the indoor farms so consumers can “decide for themselves if it meets their de nition of local.”
Lightfoot says production costs are higher than what he calls the “centralized long-dis- tance eld industry” in California, with higher capital costs as well, but e ciencies are found elsewhere, along with food being about a week fresher.
“We don’t have multiple companies in the supply chain,” he says. “We don’t have long- haul trucking. So we’re able to operate very cost-e ectively because we have a shorter and simpler supply chain with fewer steps in it.
“We’re selling at competitive prices relative to the eld industry. We’re doing it success- fully and pro tably, and we intend to keep doing that.”
He adds that after gathering several years of data, BrightFarms has found that every time it has entered a salad category with a retailer, the category sales have risen.
“So it’s the same amount of shelf space, but they make room for us by eliminating other products or other brands, but it’s not just a switch from Brand A to BrightFarms; it’s a lift in sales,” he says.
Both Lightfoot and Shenandoah’s Wright raise the issue of recent food safety scares as a further driver for the category, while disasters have exacerbated what can already be a volatile supply chain for eld-grown crops.
“In the last year, food safety has just risen
up the ranks of criteria, especially in the minds of retailers, and they want to switch as much of their supply to greenhouses as they can in salads, because there’s been this serial episode of foodborne illness outbreaks,” says Lightfoot.
“We’ve seen a hurricane go through the panhandle of Florida into Georgia, and it’s a ected the greens and corn, and we’ve seen an enormous recall on Romaine that’s really left its mark, not only on the supplier end but also the retailers who have really had to foot the cost,” adds Wright.
Wright describes the Romaine lettuce recall as “the boiling point for everybody.”
“It’s garnered a lot of attention because I think they’re looking for a better way to do things, and again, how does that food for tomorrow happen?
RAISING THE BAR
As leafy green growers, Shenandoah, BrightFarms and others such as Bowery Farming (with locations in New York and New Jersey) and Gotham Greens (with loca- tions in New York and Chicago) are part of a more budding greenhouse movement when compared to more mature protected agricul- ture crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers.
ese three items have been the main drivers of the category, according to Aaron Quon, executive category director for green- house and vegetables at Oppy in Vancouver, BC.
“We have seen increased greenhouse supply being grown in the United States,” says Quon. “As with many growers, we too are looking to increase our domestic U.S. supplies
24 / JANUARY 2019 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BRIGHTFARMS