Niagara Region throws support behind fruit and veggie growers - The Standard

Niagara Region throws support behind fruit and veggie growers - The Standard

Posted By MATTHEW VAN DONGEN
Posted 2 hours ago

Regional council is asking for provincial and federal aid for Niagara's endangered fruit and vegetable farmers.

Council unanimously voted Thursday to support the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association in its request for a government-supported risk-management program for the beleaguered horticulture industry.

Association chair Brenda Lammens said the tender-fruit industry faces "a catastrophe" born of skyrocketing production prices and cheap foreign imports "dumped" into the local market.

Lammens said tender-fruit-growing areas like Niagara are poised to lose farms and potentially "thousands of on-farm jobs" if a government-supported industry support program isn't developed.

"This really is a crisis ... a lack of profitability across the entire sector that will have serious consequences for Niagara farmers," she said.

The association represents 7,500 fruit and vegetable farmers across the province, which translates into 30,000 farming jobs and $1.2 billion annually to the economy.

Lammens said the association is seeking a premium-based support program that includes production insurance to "protect farmers from escalating costs and decreasing returns."

Lammens noted Ontario already provides a similar risk-management program for the grain and oilseed industry.

"This is insurance for us, but it's an insurance program for everyone in this room," she told councillors at Thursday's meeting. "It's ensuring you're still going to be able to get Ontario fruits and vegetables for your table."

Part of the problem is the quick jump in the minimum wage in an industry that relies on manual labour and competes with cheap overseas production. Lammens said over the last three years, the labour costs for Ontario growers will have increased by more than $70 million, or close to 30 per cent.

The other big problem, she said, is artificially low prices for imported products like peppers and peaches.

A report from Guelph's George Morris Centre, an agricultural think-tank, has also predicted catastrophe for the industry without government intervention.

Ontario Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky recently told The Standard she is "pleading the case" for improvements to come soon to federal-provincial business risk-management programs.

Lammens said change needs to come soon. Her association has already petitioned Lincoln's municipal council for political support and plans to continue lobbying.

Niagara Regional Chairman Peter Partington called the tenderfruit industry "one of the drivers of our economy" and promised to write letter of support to both provincial and federal representatives.