The Niagara Peninsula fruit and vegetable growers are honouring the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Service and CanAg Travel Service for their 2020 pandemic efforts. The Award of Merit cites extraordinary efforts in managing travel logistics for about 20,000 seasonal agricultural workers arriving in Ontario and advocacy efforts to secure federal quarantine funding.  

Erika DeBrouwer has joined the horticulture crops unit, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. She will be based in Simcoe.

Robert Van Der Geest becomes general manager for Nature Fresh Farms Mexico  leading operations of a 15-acre pepper greenhouse in the central region of the country. Another 15 acres are under construction. 

The president and co-founder of Cave Spring Cellars has been named to the Order of Canada, capping a lifetime of achievements in the wine and hospitality industry of the Niagara Peninsula.  

The annual general meeting of CanAgPlus, the not-for-profit corporation that owns and operates the CanadaGAP Program, has elected two new and two returning directors. This is the oversight board for food safety. 

While no specific type, brand or supplier of leafy greens was identified as the source of infection, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified the E. coli strain in a manure sample about a mile from the production site. 

A dehydration plant owned by the Washington Potato Company was destroyed in a major fire on January 21. It’s located 90 miles southwest of Spokane.

The crossing between Reynosa, Mexico and Pharr, Texas is expanding to accommodate $35 billion in trade and more in the years to come. It’s the number one crossing in the U.S for produce. More than 10 per cent of the crossings are in high-value berries.

In a new twist, some of America’s largest blueberry growers are insisting that there is no injury to the industry when most imports arrive outside the domestic growing season of late April to early September. The coalition went public a week before the U.S. International Trade Commission looks at the case on January 12.

The American Blueberry Growers Alliance has been established to seek relief from rising imports. While Peru and Mexico are said to be the main irritants, Canada is also caught up in the International Trade Commission investigation.  

BASF Canada Agricultural Solutions has received registration for Merivon fungicide. It can be used to address key diseases such as black rot and bitter rot in apples, and Septoria leaf spot and botrytis gray mold in blueberries. 

Currently in Ontario the Pigweed family have confirmed resistance to 6 of the 8 Herbicide Groups where resistance occurs. Browse or download the latest version of the Pigweed Species Identification Guide.

The Ontario Pesticide Education Program courses focus on product information, health and environmental risk management, pesticide application and pesticide safety practices. Growers can work through the course at their own pace. 

UPL diversifies its portfolio with OHM, its first biostimulant in Canada.  

Belchim Canada has received a PMRA label expansion for Diplomat fungicide that includes application for phomopsis and downy mildew in grapes, powdery mildew in blackberries, loganberries and raspberries, and control of phomopsis and leather rot in strawberries.