Photo: Deimagine/Getty Images Plus

Expanding greenhouse sector means more home-grown veggies

Plenty of room to expand in controlled environment agriculture, but investment needed says FCC

Canada continues to rely heavily in imported fruits and vegetables, especially during its long winters but different types of controlled environment agriculture like greenhouses are expanding and changing the balance says Farm Credit Canada.


(Bicks.ca)

Smucker to shed Bick’s brand

Pickle brand, other Canadian condiments to go to TreeHouse

U.S. food firm J.M. Smucker has a deal in place to sell off the Canadian pickle brand Bick’s and a portfolio of condiment brands it makes for the Canadian market. Ohio-based Smucker announced Oct. 17 it will sell the Bick’s brand plus the Habitant pickled beets, Woodman’s horseradish and McLarens pickled onions brands to Illinois […] Read more

The Agriculture Enlightened conference, held Oct. 26 in Winnipeg and hosted by EMILI, is trying to help Canada become a leader in digital and precision agriculture. (John Deere photo)

Robots may help grain farmers diversify

Tech could support labour-intensive higher-value crops

Chuck Baresich, who owns an agricultural robotics business in Ontario, says controlling weeds with robots is probably best suited for high-value, horticultural crops in Canada. However, large-scale grain farmers could also use the technology if they think about it differently. “Let’s say my brother and me are growing 1,500 acres of corn,” said Baresich, who […] Read more


(Limagrain.com)

Limagrain offers to buy out seed maker Vilmorin

Pride Seeds co-owner has majority stake in veg seed firm

Paris | Reuters — French agricultural co-operative Limagrain has offered to buy the 28.78 per cent of Vilmorin it does not already own in a deal that values one of the world’s biggest seed suppliers at 1.43 billion euros (C$2.13 billion). Limagrain said on Friday it was offering 62.60 euros per Vilmorin share, a premium […] Read more

Interior view of the Aurora Sky cannabis production facility near Edmonton. (Aurora Cannabis video screengrab)

Aurora buys control of major B.C. hothouse veg firm

Bevo Farms to take over Aurora Sky cannabis production site

A major player in B.C.’s greenhouse vegetable sector is about to expand its operations into an Alberta cannabis grow facility — backed by a major investment from the plant’s owner. Aurora Cannabis on Aug. 25 announced a subsidiary is buying a 50.1 per cent stake in Bevo Agtech, the parent of vegetable and ornamental plant […] Read more


People cook food beside their damaged house following rains and floods during Pakistan’s monsoon season at Jafarabad, about 400 km north of Hyderabad, on Aug. 28, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Amer Hussain)

Produce prices spike in flood-hit Pakistan as food crisis looms

Flooding wrecks crops, hampers logistics

Lahore | Reuters — Vegetable and fruit prices have soared in markets across Pakistan as devastating rains ruin crops and disrupt supplies, an early sign of how the worst floods in decades are creating food shortages at a time of financial crisis. Pakistan’s 220 million people are already facing rampant inflation, with consumer prices up […] Read more

Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. (Photo courtesy Syngenta)

Italian court upholds veto against Syngenta purchase of seed producer

Rome | Reuters — An Italian administrative court ruled that a government veto of the purchase of seed producer Verisem by Chinese-owned Syngenta was valid, the agrochemicals giant said on Wednesday. Prime Minister Mario Draghi blocked the proposed takeover in October, the second time he used the special “golden power” rules to ward off an […] Read more