Ontario strawberries are delivering a hard knock on the buy
local, buy fresh campaign.
They are frankly very disappointing.
My wife and I have three times chosen to buy quarts of
locally-grown strawberries, and each time we have had to trash between a
quarter and a half of them because they were soft or rotting.
The latest disappointment came at the Kitchener Farmers’
Market where prices for Ontario strawberries ranged from $4 to $8 per quart,
the more expensive ones advertised as everbearing strawberries from Sudbury.
We bought a $4 quart and less than 12 hours later, when we
were preparing a fresh strawberry pie, had to ditch more than half of them.
This was particularly galling because there were several displays
of California strawberries at the same Kitchener Farmers’ Market with prices
ranging from $2 per quart to three quarts for $5.
Their eye appeal was superb, far better than the Ontario
strawberries.
My daughter, who bought them, said the taste gap between
Ontario and California strawberries has narrowed to indistinguishable.
The California ones are firmer.
So I have a proposal.
Instead of investing in buy local, buy fresh campaigns, the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
should use the money for research, development and extension.
Our growers need to be able to match the varieties coming
from California.
That involves breeding varieties with potential to match the
ones from California.
It also means management to be able to harvest and move them
to market at a par with what California delivers.
As for price, I’m guessing that there are enough Ontarions
who will pay a bit more for local berries to make it profitable for the local
growers and marketers.
But certainly continuing with the performance we’re seeing Ontario with strawberries this year is guaranteed to get a lot of customers jumping off the
buy local, buy fresh bandwagon.
Yes, there are probably weather-related reasons for the
quality challenges this season, but why should customers care when they can buy
imported berries of superior quality at lower prices?
