Canada: Vegetable production in Container Farm – Economic Fact Sheet
In 2020, 7 First Nations communities and 4 post-secondary institutions have adopted this production method. There are a total of 21 enterprises producing vegetables in containers in 9 Canadian provinces and territories.
By Adeline Cohen, Éric Duchemin
Laboratoire sur l’agriculture urbaine (AU/LAB)
2021
Excerpt:
Production Of Vegetables In A Container
The production of vegetables in containers started to evolve in 2010. Numerous agricultural production or container designer enterprises were established starting in 2015 around the world. A report estimates that there were between 250 and 300 container farms in the world in 2017, while a 2019 article estimates this number to be 500.
In Canada, the production of vegetables in containers is notably used by Indigenous communities and the education sector. In 2020, 7 First Nations communities and 4 post-secondary institutions have adopted this production method. There are a total of 21 enterprises producing vegetables in containers in 9 Canadian provinces and territories.
In Quebec, the evolution of container farms is still limited as they represent 10% of Canadian urban sites in 2020. The number of farms should, however, increase in the next year. Thus, 9 farms are about to start in Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta.
In comparison with other indoor production systems, the production of food in a container has the advantage of giving flexibility in the choice of its location, giving the possibility of being located close to the customers, sometimes in remote locations or in places that are not favourable for agriculture. Their set up being possible over the course of a few months allows a container farm to be operational quite rapidly. Furthermore, the entry cost in the sector is relatively low compared to other indoor farm models. The modular and turnkey aspects are especially appealing for entrepreneurs wishing to test the soil-less production system on a small scale before taking on a more substantial investment.
Despite these advantages, the sector faces skepticism because of the exaggerated production performance shared by some manufacturers, the lack of economic competitiveness compared to greenhouse production or indoor production in buildings, as well as the model’s lack of scaling capacity since to expand the farm, some of the equipment becomes redundant and less optimal. In 2017, a survey of 150 farms emerging in the sector of controlled environment agriculture identified container farming as the most oversold technology in the indoor agricultural sector.
