Largest Canadian Vertical Strawberry Farm With Plans to Reduce Imports to the Country by 10% Is Now Operational

Quebec company Winter Farm has inaugurated a massive vertical strawberry farm in Vaudreuil.

With a total area of 1,150 m²,  this is the largest controlled-environment vertical strawberry farm in Canada.

The company plans to grow over 180,000 kilograms of strawberries between October and June of every year, which is the equivalent of production yielded by more than 2 hectares of traditional greenhouse area.

Winter Farm says they are integrating its units into the existing agriculture ecosystem to produce over 13 million kilograms of strawberries by 2025.

With this new vertical farming technology, they plan to offer a real alternative to imports from California and Mexico and reach their goal of replacing 10% of strawberry imports in another 4 years. 

According to the news release, their Fraise d’Hiver strawberries are grown in a 100% controlled space and all ideal environment conditions like sunlight, rain and wind are reproduced using the latest technology. Winter Farm says no chemical pesticides are required due to the perfect simulated weather conditions during their off-season production of fresh strawberries.

The company currently has a commercial agreement with Sobeys and their Fraise d’Hiver strawberries will be available in the west end of Montréal and in the Montérégie during the winter of 2021-2022.

Winter Farm also provides turnkey solutions to farmers interested in doing vertical farming during the off-season.