Canada: Organic potatoes a tough row to hoe – but profitable

It was more than a hunch that prompted one of Canada’s leading potato producers to begin to transition a few acres to an organic production system in 1999. The evidence was mounting that organics had potential, said Wayne Rempel, CEO of Kroeker Farms Ltd. in an interview. “We felt that there was a growing market for organic. The marketing side of it intrigued us,” he said. Today Poplar Grove Farm, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kroeker Farms Ltd., is Manitoba’s largest certified organic grower of red, yellow and russet potatoes and one of relatively few large organic vegetable producers in the entire country. They also grow onions in an organic rotation near Winkler. More