QUOTED EXCERPTS:
Anon Lololi quickly rattles off how he likes to
cook callaloo, a leafy green vegetable common
in his native Guyana, but not so common in
kitchens and grocery stores around his Toronto-
area home.
"We love it in rice," he says. Add coconut milk,
and it’s a real "delicacy." Plus, it is chock full of
nutrients, offering "more iron than spinach" and
lots of Vitamin E.
But as good as callaloo may be, it’s far from
being a household staple in Canadian kitchens.
Lololi would like callaloo to become more
common, though. And by growing and selling it,
along with produce such as okra at farmers
markets in Toronto, he’s tapping into an
underserved demand for ethnic vegetables that
University of Guelph researchers say could be
worth more than $60 million per month in the
Greater Toronto Area alone.
"We want to introduce these new crops to
Toronto," says Lololi, executive director of the
Afri-Can FoodBasket, a community group whose
activities include growing vegetables at the
McVean startup farm site in nearby Brampton.
P.E.I. farmers experiment with Asian vegetables
Pakistani-Canadian farmer fills crop void in
Canada
And he seems to be looking at a market primed
for their arrival.
Earlier this year, Statistics Canada reported that
of the country’s largest urban centres, the
Toronto area had "by far" the largest share of
foreign-born residents, a group representing 46
per cent of the population.
More than eating turnips
In Markham alone, a city on Toronto's northern
border with a large Chinese population, 72.3 per
cent of the population was a visible minority,
Statistics Canada said.
To the northwest, in Brampton, that proportion
was 66.4 per cent — fuelled in large part by a
burgeoning South Asian population. In
Mississauga, to the west, visible minorities
accounted for 53.7 per cent of the population. In
Toronto itself, the proportion is 49.1.
That immigration influx has prompted those who
think about how food is produced in Canada to
ask some serious questions.
"When you look at the demographic trends, you
go, ‘Oh boy, by 2017, Toronto will be more than
50 per cent visible minority' — so the visible
majority at that point — and what are we in
agriculture doing about that?" asks Jim Brandle,
chief executive officer of the Vineland Research
and Innovation Centre in Ontario’s Niagara
Region.
"People come with their own cultural and dietary
traditions, and quite frankly I think the idea is to
give people what they want rather than to teach
them to eat turnips, which has sort of been our
strategy so far."
But producing those more exotic crops isn’t as
simple as getting some seeds, planting them and
expecting to reap lush harvests a few months
later.
"What we discovered is that some things are not
well understood," says Glen Filson, a professor
at the University of Guelph. His research, in
conjunction with others, found the potential
demand for fresh, locally grown ethnic vegetables
could be worth $61 million a month in the greater
Toronto area alone.
Anon Lololi crouches down for a closer look at
callaloo - also called amaranth - growing at the
McVean startup farm in Brampton, northwest of
Toronto. (Janet Davison/CBC)
"We know now that you can grow okra and it’s
been grown in large quantities in southern
Ontario …just north of Lake Erie. And bitter
melon can also be grown here."
But for other vegetables, "the growing season is
just not long enough or we don’t have enough
heat units because a lot of these are tropical
vegetables," he says.
According to Filson’s study, people in the
Chinese community are looking for bok choi,
Chinese broccoli and eggplant.
In the South Asian community, consumers want
okra, eggplant and bitter melon. Those in the
African-Caribbean community also would look for
okra, along with African eggplant, garden eggs
and callaloo, also known as smooth amaranth.
At the Vineland centre, researchers have decided
to narrow their focus to three ethnic vegetables:
round Indian eggplant, long Asian eggplant and
okra.
Those crops are the ones considered to "fit well
into our production system and ones the growers
could grow profitably," says Brandle.
But there are other challenges, including what
Filson calls a "cultural barrier" between the
farmers who live in the prime production areas in
southwestern Ontario and the immigrant
consumer population in the GTA.
"A lot of those farmers just aren’t aware of the
extent of the demand in the GTA," Filson says.
Another hurdle is the fact that, in Canada, there
are no certified pesticides or fungicides for most
of these new crops.
Some degree of risk
That absence would concern commercial
producers who would worry these kinds of crops
might develop a pest they would not be able to
control.
"So there’s a certain amount of risk attached to
the growth of some of these vegetables," Filson
says.
That’s not to say some ethnic vegetables haven’t
been successfully produced in Canada. Gauging
total current production is difficult as Statistics
Canada doesn’t have readily available numbers.
But bok choi and related crops have been doing
well in the lush Holland Marsh area north of
Toronto for about 40 years.
Mary Ruth McDonald says there is considerable
market potential for amaranth. (Courtesy Mary
Ruth McDonald)
"They’ve gone from something being specialized
to Chinese restaurants … to being widely
consumed by many different groups," says Mary
Ruth McDonald, a University of Guelph professor
who works out of the Muck Crops Research
Station at the Holland Marsh.
McDonald is now focusing some of her attention
on amaranth — or callaloo.
"We know it can grow really well here," she says,
as it is related to some of the common weeds like
pigweed that can thrive and be quite a bother in
Ontario fields. I see it as having a large market
potential."
Canada’s largest food retailer has also spotted
the market potential ethnic vegetables as a whole
can hold.
Looking for freshness and value
While Loblaw Companies Limited would not
disclose sales information, a company
representative said it sees "significant" demand
for ethnic produce in the GTA, as well as in the
Vancouver and Montreal areas, as a result of
immigration and "the changing palate of the
general population." Strong growth is also
emerging in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and
Moncton.
"Consumers are looking for produce that [is]
familiar to them from their native countries and
expect quality, freshness and value," Shreenivas
Shellikeri, Loblaw’s senior category manager for
ethnic produce, said in an email.
'The opportunity starts with new Canadians, but
the real opportunity is to feed it to everybody.'—
Ian Brandle
Loblaw started carrying okra about 15 years ago
after noticing the rising demand for South Asian
items, along with the number of South Asian
grocery stores across the GTA.
"Today it’s one of the key ethnic produce items in
many [Loblaw] stores," Shellikeri said.
But if consumers are looking for locally produced
ethnic produce, it is hard to come by. At Loblaw,
for example, on a yearly basis, 85 to 90 per cent
of its ethnic produce is imported.
However, said Shellikeri, as part of the
company’s "source with integrity" principle, it
"prides itself on sourcing its produce locally when
possible" and is getting some of the "key ethnic
commodities" from family farms in British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova
Scotia.
UNQUOTE
Anon Lololi quickly rattles off how he likes to
cook callaloo, a leafy green vegetable common
in his native Guyana, but not so common in
kitchens and grocery stores around his Toronto-
area home.
"We love it in rice," he says. Add coconut milk,
and it’s a real "delicacy." Plus, it is chock full of
nutrients, offering "more iron than spinach" and
lots of Vitamin E.
But as good as callaloo may be, it’s far from
being a household staple in Canadian kitchens.
Lololi would like callaloo to become more
common, though. And by growing and selling it,
along with produce such as okra at farmers
markets in Toronto, he’s tapping into an
underserved demand for ethnic vegetables that
University of Guelph researchers say could be
worth more than $60 million per month in the
Greater Toronto Area alone.
"We want to introduce these new crops to
Toronto," says Lololi, executive director of the
Afri-Can FoodBasket, a community group whose
activities include growing vegetables at the
McVean startup farm site in nearby Brampton.
P.E.I. farmers experiment with Asian vegetables
Pakistani-Canadian farmer fills crop void in
Canada
And he seems to be looking at a market primed
for their arrival.
Earlier this year, Statistics Canada reported that
of the country’s largest urban centres, the
Toronto area had "by far" the largest share of
foreign-born residents, a group representing 46
per cent of the population.
More than eating turnips
In Markham alone, a city on Toronto's northern
border with a large Chinese population, 72.3 per
cent of the population was a visible minority,
Statistics Canada said.
To the northwest, in Brampton, that proportion
was 66.4 per cent — fuelled in large part by a
burgeoning South Asian population. In
Mississauga, to the west, visible minorities
accounted for 53.7 per cent of the population. In
Toronto itself, the proportion is 49.1.
That immigration influx has prompted those who
think about how food is produced in Canada to
ask some serious questions.
"When you look at the demographic trends, you
go, ‘Oh boy, by 2017, Toronto will be more than
50 per cent visible minority' — so the visible
majority at that point — and what are we in
agriculture doing about that?" asks Jim Brandle,
chief executive officer of the Vineland Research
and Innovation Centre in Ontario’s Niagara
Region.
"People come with their own cultural and dietary
traditions, and quite frankly I think the idea is to
give people what they want rather than to teach
them to eat turnips, which has sort of been our
strategy so far."
But producing those more exotic crops isn’t as
simple as getting some seeds, planting them and
expecting to reap lush harvests a few months
later.
"What we discovered is that some things are not
well understood," says Glen Filson, a professor
at the University of Guelph. His research, in
conjunction with others, found the potential
demand for fresh, locally grown ethnic vegetables
could be worth $61 million a month in the greater
Toronto area alone.
Anon Lololi crouches down for a closer look at
callaloo - also called amaranth - growing at the
McVean startup farm in Brampton, northwest of
Toronto. (Janet Davison/CBC)
"We know now that you can grow okra and it’s
been grown in large quantities in southern
Ontario …just north of Lake Erie. And bitter
melon can also be grown here."
But for other vegetables, "the growing season is
just not long enough or we don’t have enough
heat units because a lot of these are tropical
vegetables," he says.
According to Filson’s study, people in the
Chinese community are looking for bok choi,
Chinese broccoli and eggplant.
In the South Asian community, consumers want
okra, eggplant and bitter melon. Those in the
African-Caribbean community also would look for
okra, along with African eggplant, garden eggs
and callaloo, also known as smooth amaranth.
At the Vineland centre, researchers have decided
to narrow their focus to three ethnic vegetables:
round Indian eggplant, long Asian eggplant and
okra.
Those crops are the ones considered to "fit well
into our production system and ones the growers
could grow profitably," says Brandle.
But there are other challenges, including what
Filson calls a "cultural barrier" between the
farmers who live in the prime production areas in
southwestern Ontario and the immigrant
consumer population in the GTA.
"A lot of those farmers just aren’t aware of the
extent of the demand in the GTA," Filson says.
Another hurdle is the fact that, in Canada, there
are no certified pesticides or fungicides for most
of these new crops.
Some degree of risk
That absence would concern commercial
producers who would worry these kinds of crops
might develop a pest they would not be able to
control.
"So there’s a certain amount of risk attached to
the growth of some of these vegetables," Filson
says.
That’s not to say some ethnic vegetables haven’t
been successfully produced in Canada. Gauging
total current production is difficult as Statistics
Canada doesn’t have readily available numbers.
But bok choi and related crops have been doing
well in the lush Holland Marsh area north of
Toronto for about 40 years.
Mary Ruth McDonald says there is considerable
market potential for amaranth. (Courtesy Mary
Ruth McDonald)
"They’ve gone from something being specialized
to Chinese restaurants … to being widely
consumed by many different groups," says Mary
Ruth McDonald, a University of Guelph professor
who works out of the Muck Crops Research
Station at the Holland Marsh.
McDonald is now focusing some of her attention
on amaranth — or callaloo.
"We know it can grow really well here," she says,
as it is related to some of the common weeds like
pigweed that can thrive and be quite a bother in
Ontario fields. I see it as having a large market
potential."
Canada’s largest food retailer has also spotted
the market potential ethnic vegetables as a whole
can hold.
Looking for freshness and value
While Loblaw Companies Limited would not
disclose sales information, a company
representative said it sees "significant" demand
for ethnic produce in the GTA, as well as in the
Vancouver and Montreal areas, as a result of
immigration and "the changing palate of the
general population." Strong growth is also
emerging in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and
Moncton.
"Consumers are looking for produce that [is]
familiar to them from their native countries and
expect quality, freshness and value," Shreenivas
Shellikeri, Loblaw’s senior category manager for
ethnic produce, said in an email.
'The opportunity starts with new Canadians, but
the real opportunity is to feed it to everybody.'—
Ian Brandle
Loblaw started carrying okra about 15 years ago
after noticing the rising demand for South Asian
items, along with the number of South Asian
grocery stores across the GTA.
"Today it’s one of the key ethnic produce items in
many [Loblaw] stores," Shellikeri said.
But if consumers are looking for locally produced
ethnic produce, it is hard to come by. At Loblaw,
for example, on a yearly basis, 85 to 90 per cent
of its ethnic produce is imported.
However, said Shellikeri, as part of the
company’s "source with integrity" principle, it
"prides itself on sourcing its produce locally when
possible" and is getting some of the "key ethnic
commodities" from family farms in British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova
Scotia.
UNQUOTE