Features Production Vegetables
Building new markets for horticulture producers

October 16, 2009 By Marg Land

October 16, 2009,
Vineland, Ont. – Faster access to new plant varieties and processes will help
horticulture producers remain innovative and competitive.

The Governments of
Canada and Ontario recently announced they plan to invest $15.6 million in the
Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC) to coordinate and deliver
commercialization opportunities to the horticulture
sector.

“Research and innovation
are the keys to the competitiveness and profitability of our growers,” said
Parliamentary Secretary Pierre Lemieux, on behalf of Federal Agriculture
Minister Gerry Ritz. “This investment will translate into new advances which
will in turn translate into more economic opportunity for the horticulture
sector.”

“Industry-driven
research and a focus on commercialization will result in more jobs, a more
competitive horticulture industry and a stronger economy,” said Leona
Dombrowsky, Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

VRIC will work with the
agricultural industry, colleges, universities and other research institutions,
including Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, to develop the capacity of
horticultural producers to grow new, high-value crop varieties, to use more
efficient production processes and to find ways to increase the year-round
supply of products.

This investment in VRIC
is one of Ontario’s innovation and science initiatives under Growing Forward, a
federal-provincial-territorial agricultural policy that supports the development
of a profitable and innovative sector. For more information about Growing
Forward, visit www.agr.gc.ca/growingforward
or www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/about/growingforward/index.htm.

The VRIC was created in
2007 as an industry-led, not-for-profit organization specializing in
horticultural research and commercialization. For more information about
VRIC, click here .

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