A key priority for the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA) is advocating for the preservation of domestic food production. Our organization has sections or committees that deal with very specific issues, such as safety nets, which I chair, or crop protection or labour, to name just a few.

And although these sections delve deeply into the nitty gritty details of their respective subject areas, they all ultimately have the same goal – to support grower competitiveness and profitability so that we can continue to produce food right here at home.

This is often referred to as domestic food security and the last few years have shown us how precarious our world can become when we must depend on other countries to produce the inputs, ingredients, products and supplies that we need. Post-pandemic, probably the most dramatic example we’ve had to deal with is fertilizer, which became a challenge following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Canada is well known around the world as a major agricultural producer and as growers, we proudly believe that there is no better produce than fresh local Ontario produce. Even for a country with as strong an agricultural tradition as ours, however, long-term food security is far from guaranteed. This is especially true for fruit and vegetable growers.

What makes us different from other farmers? A major factor is the labour-intensive nature of the crops that we grow. A lack of automation in our sector means we still depend heavily on human labour to grow, manage and harvest our crops, making wages, housing and other labour-related costs a significant investment for growers.

It’s also about the perishability of our product. I grow asparagus and watermelon, and unlike grain oilseed, livestock and forage producers, I can’t just hold onto my produce until the price gets higher. And if some product doesn’t quite make a quality grade, growers aren’t just given modest price discounts; instead, the entire load is rejected.

We also have no ability to use futures markets to hedge against risk, nor do we have protection from inflation the way our supply managed sectors do. Dairy farmers, for example, have raised their prices as needed to cope with their rising input costs.

That brings us to the topic of inflation. Retailers are struggling to deal with pressure from media, consumers and government to keep food prices in check, which means they’re looking to their suppliers, such as farmers, to take less. Many of us feel that fruit and vegetable growers in particular are bearing the disproportionate brunt of the battle against inflation – because again, this is where the perishability and seasonality of our fresh product work against us.

As growers, we’re all still dealing with inflated prices for fertilizer, fuel, packaging and other aspects of our cost of production, but few if any of us can get that full cost increase covered by produce buyers. We also operate in a global marketplace with competitors who are less regulated, have stronger safety net supports or lower production costs.

All of these factors come together to make for an unsustainable production environment for Ontario fruit and vegetable growers that not only limits the profitability and competitiveness of our sector, but also makes it extremely challenging to work in support of the provincial government’s Grow Ontario Strategy. Among its goals are to increase the production and consumption of food grown and prepared in Ontario by 30 per cent, and boost Ontario’s agri-food exports by eight per cent annually by 2032.

It should also be noted that with the exception of greenhouse vegetables, Ontario is not in an abundance situation when it comes to domestic fruit and vegetable production; in fact, in many crops, we don’t currently have the capacity to meet all of our domestic consumption needs with local production.

In onions, for example, we can only grow enough to cover about three-quarters of domestic consumption. Asparagus are at about two-thirds, apples are at less than two-thirds,and watermelons meet less than half of our domestic consumption needs.

Fruit and vegetable production, markets and exports are a complicated balancing act. We are such a diverse sector and face risks unique among Ontario farmers, which is why the Self-Directed Risk Management (SDRM) is so crucial for us.

It’s also why, if we want to protect our ability to grow as much of our own food as possible, it’s time for the program to be funded properly. Our inflationary realities and market challenges are real and unsustainable. And if they continue, our domestic food security will also become unsustainable as growers switch to lower risk, higher margin agricultural commodities.