Although the potato business is booming, Hamill says in-province transportation is a challenge for producers. “To be able to get your products delivered on time is a bigger problem all the time, and freight rates are not as competitive as they used to be,” he says. “Trucks are scarce and rates are going up.”
Nova Scotia
Home to hundreds of fruit growers, this maritime province cultivated more than 48,000 acres of fruit in 2016. Nova Scotia is best known for its blueberries, strawberries, and apples.
Fast Facts On Canada East:
• The total area (consisting of land and interior freshwater lakes, rivers, and reservoirs) of Canada’s eastern provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) is 3.16 million square kilometers or 1.22 million square miles• The Eastern provinces are home to nearly 4,400 farms, with the majority (about 70 percent) growing vegetables
• More than half of these growers are located in Ontario or Quebec
• Ontario is home to most vegetable growers with over 1,700 farms
• There are 640 greenhouses in Eastern Canada; most are clustered in or around Leamington, Ontario
• Eastern Canada’s fruit is valued at over $600 million annually; vegetables at about $950 million each year.
With more than 1,000 wild blue-berry producers across the province, Nova Scotia produces over 40 million pounds of the blue-purple fruit each year. The province annually exports $70 million in wild blueberries to countries across the globe.
Like New Brunswick, Nova Scotia growers had to deal with too many wild blueberries on the market last year, which drove prices down to just 20 cents a pound—a drastic drop from 65 cents in 2014. Industry experts fear a continued downturn could force many Nova Scotia producers out of business; most are looking to a market correction in 2018.
Nova Scotia is also a major apple producer. French settlers first started growing apples in the Annapolis Valley in 1633. Apple exports have been climbing recently, and one particular variety, Honeycrisp, is skyrocketing
in popularity across Nova Scotia orchards. Nearly two-thirds of commercial growers in the province now grow the variety, according to the province’s Department of Agriculture, and bring in premium prices—$700 to $800 dollars per bin—five times as much as some traditional varieties, such as MacIntosh.