Local only applies to strawberries part of the year, but a new collaboration by Sunterra Group and Lethbridge College aims to change that.
“Current demand for fresh, locally grown produce far outstrips the available supply in a market reliant on Mexican and U.S. imports for most of the year,” the college said in a news release on a new initiative it is undertaking with Sunterra.
“This project aims to optimize the growing conditions for pre-commercial and commercial-scale production of strawberries and tomatoes on the vine, and boost Alberta’s crop output during times of limited supply and low import quality.”
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Acme-headquartered Sunterra is adding a major greenhouse component to its extensive operations (which includes pork production and processing, cropping, a lineup of traditional Italian cured meats and a grocery chain).
“It’s a good news story — we believe that for Alberta, agriculture is the future and in a lot of ways will be an economic growth driver,” said Ray Price, president of the Sunterra Group, which owns Sonterra Markets, which has eight retail locations across the province.
“We have land, we have energy, we have people, and we have water, and we should be using those to feed not only Albertans but people around the world.”
The effort is getting a $783,000 grant from Results Driven Agriculture Research (the provincially funded body allocating research dollars).
The greenhouse vegetable sector in Alberta has been on a tear in recent years with sales more than doubling to nearly $120 million in 2020 compared to 2016, the college release states.
The project will focus on both establishing best practices for water and nutrient management (and energy efficiency) and also on technological innovations in greenhouses that “will increase their environmental efficiency while making their operations more productive and competitive.”
College associate vice-president Kenny Corscadden said it will be a long-term research collaboration.
“There is excellent market potential in our province for both strawberries and tomatoes and these pre-commercial trials in our Brooks research and production greenhouse with Sunterra will contribute to this growing sector,” he said.
The college’s greenhouse research facility at Brooks is 60,000 square feet but it will be dwarfed by a new facility Sonterra is building at Acme, the hometown of the Price family.
An initial 20-acre phase is scheduled to open this month and “will be built to accommodate 70 acres of growing — making it one of the largest food production areas under glass in Alberta,” the college news release states.
It also says there is currently about 200 acres “under glass” in the province but that could grow “to 1,000 acres within five years, creating 3,000 new jobs and generating $1 billion in revenue.”
